Ring in the New Year with Virtualization

Written by:

Mike Sammel
Sr. Technology Business Engineer
NET Xperts LLC

What is virtualization and can your organization benefit from it? Nowadays, organizations are always looking for ways to cut their IT costs wherever possible. Over the last few years, hardware virtualization has become more prominent in helping organizations do just that, and it looks like this trend will continue to grow in 2013.

Virtualization is typically defined as “virtual machines” running on a physical “host” server, where the hypervisor software (such as VMware ESX server or Microsoft Hyper V) controls access to the underlying hardware. “Virtual machines” are normally full implementations of standard Operating Systems, like Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Redhat Linux etc… running simultaneously, on the same physical, “host” server. The “host” server is the actual physical hardware i.e. HP Proliant servers, Dell PowerEdge servers, etc.

It’s easy to see how this can help save on hardware costs. For example, you may be able to run 10 virtual servers on just a few “host” servers, along with the correct infrastructure without issue. There are many other benefits that go along with a virtual infrastructure; some of these include more flexible backup and disaster recovery options, reduction of energy and cooling costs and the ability to react to changing business needs quickly.

However, there are also many things to take into consideration before you decide to implement virtualization. Some of these include application compatibility, hardware and software requirements, including which virtualization vendor is chosen. It’s also important to decide which virtualization software version you should be using based on your organizations situation. There are even free versions of most virtualization products; however they lack some key features that most organizations would benefit from.

If you’re interested in having NET Xperts help you determine how, or if, virtualization can help your organization, complete our request information form online or contact one of our Business Consultants at 412-244-NETX (6389).