You may want to utilise server virtualisation for your company or business for a variety of compelling reasons This article highlights some of the benefits to server virtualisation and in addition some aspects to consider before you decide on server virtualisation.
Disaster recovery or application backup and/or recovery is quicker and simpler on a virtual server than a physical server because virtualised data is not dependent on the hardware it runs on, which makes it easily transferable.
You may want to have an application that’s running on Windows on one physical server placed on a second physical server. This means you’ll need to install Windows on the second server, then install the application and configure the application for using it on that server. It’s significantly faster to do the same process between virtual servers. Some applications though don’t run well or at all on a Linux VPS host for example. Applications that are linked to a piece of hardware, for example scanner software, do not transition well to virtualisation. It is therefore a good idea to check which of your applications will undergo virtualisation well before you start the virtualisation process.
A company may want to undertake server virtualisation if they are doing a hardware refresh, application upgrade or they want to enhance their strategy for disaster recovery. Server virtualisation can free up IT staff to work on other tasks and it can free up premise space as one virtual server can replace several physical ones.
Businesses often choose to run only one application on a physical server for fear of the application crashing and therefore causing other applications on the same server to crash. There are estimates that most physical servers only run at 10-15% of total capacity. Through virtualisation however a single physical server can become a multitasking one. Businesses can spend a great deal of money on powering server capacity that is not being used. Virtualisation lowers the number of physical servers, which reduces power and cooling costs. Fewer physical servers means less time spent on manual maintenance as well.
Storage virtualisation allows numerous network storage resources to be combined into what appears as one storage device, which means these resources can be more easily and efficiently managed. This makes backup, recovery and archiving much quicker and simpler too. Virtualisation offers scalability, so as an organisation grows resources can be assigned to the virtual server instead of having to change or install more physical servers. Businesses can save on hardware costs by sharing resources between virtual servers.
Managing virtual servers is similar to managing physical ones, but if a company has a small IT team it may be necessary to bring in a virtualisation expert to help get things up and running. To do server virtualisation requires skills in networking, applications, storage and servers.
You can buy a variety of virtual servers or download free ones. You can get advice from other business owners about the virtual servers they utilise, as well as talk to integrators or vendors who are specialists in business virtualisation. Find out their experience and if they have dealt with a company the size of yours before and get references before you decide to hire anyone for virtualisation services.
Muppets Speak