subject: How Server Virtualization Can Benefit Your Company [print this page] How Server Virtualization Can Benefit Your Company
When someone in the Information Technology field uses the term virtualization they are referring to a specialized type of software that runs on a server computer which enables the system to partition and host multiple operating systems. This makes it appear that the one physical server has many virtual systems running on it. And as far as the end-user and the network are concerned, this is true. Although virtualization software has been around since the late 1990s, it hasn't matured until the past couple of years. Improvements in server utilization and reduction in the overall footprint of virtualization software have led more and more organizations to reap the benefits of this technology. Some of its benefits include:
Cost savings
Energy savings
Space savings
Higher System Availability
Ability to leverage unused computing capacity and space
Cost savings can be realized in many different ways when using a virtual environment. For starters, Microsoft's version of virtualization software, called Hyper-V, is free when you purchase a copy of Windows 2008 Server or Windows 2008 Server R2. Also, depending upon the particular version of 2008 server purchased, you can run anywhere from one copy of Hyper-V to an unlimited number of copies. Additional cost savings are realized by not having to purchase additional equipment for each installation of your virtual server.
Energy savings is an obvious benefit to a virtualized environment. With the ability to have multiple servers running on the same physical server and using about the same amount of power as one typical server, the potential energy cost savings can be enormous for a large organization. Moreover, you are contributing to a greener planet.
On top of cost and energy savings, saving valuable space in your server room is a great benefit to virtualization. In a standard server environment you need to find space each time you set up a new system. Even though the size of servers has greatly reduced over the years, you eventually will run out of room as you continue introducing new systems into the organization. Taking advantage of Hyper-V or VMware will put an end to the space dilemma.
If your organization has to have a 99.999 uptime, virtualization software is a must. This is because today's virtualization software can automatically detect when one virtual server is no longer responding and almost instantly start up another instance of the same server on a separate, preconfigured machine. Even if your company doesn't require high availability you can still benefit from the ease with which a backup of the same server can be deployed. No more scrambling to find a spare server to temporarily use.
It used to be that unused memory and space on a server went to waste. This is no longer the case in a virtual environment. You can continue adding virtual servers to any server running Hyper-V or VMware as long as it has the hard drive space and memory to support it. This make for a tremendous leveraging capability.
The previous examples are but the tip of the iceberg as to the reasons an organization should consider using server virtualization. With the ease that these servers can be set up and deployed, not to mention the cost savings, you owe it to your organization to look into virtualization.
