Virtualization technology is possibly the single, most important issue in IT and has started a top to bottom overhaul of the computing industry. The growing awareness of the advantages provided by virtualization technology is brought about by economic factors of scarce resources, government regulation, and more competition.
Conventional computer hardware were designed to run a single operating system and a single application, leaving most servers vastly underutilized. The need for infrastructure is on a steady rise, requiring organizations to seek better ways to consolidate resources, increase productivity and efficiency.
Virtualization is an innovative technology that helps companies save vast amount of money and operate with greater efficiency. Large companies with vast IT resources were the first to implement it leaving growing businesses down the ladder. Now, businesses of all sizes are joining the bandwagon. How do you know if virtualization is right for your business?
The benefits of virtualization are tremendous in today’s technology-driven organizations, and when done properly can save you a lot of money and time. Virtualization uses software to simulate the existence of hardware and create a virtual computer system. The primary goal is to ensure that businesses can run multiple apps and operating systems on a single server to leverage economies of scale and efficiency.
The cost of an interruption in business, whether due to network attack, data breach or natural disaster, can be a rude awakening. An estimation of system downtime costs when a data disaster strikes takes into consideration not only productivity losses, missed sales opportunities and staff’s hourly time, but also less quantifiable impacts such as damage to corporate image and customer confidence. This highlights the growing need for additional protection against business interruptions.
The development of virtualization technology has enabled the IT industry to consolidate data centers, revolutionizing the industry. Together, virtualization technology and business continuity have increased IT operational efficiency and have helped corporations meet business continuity objectives such as recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs). The resulting benefits to organizations include reductions in cost and the increased protection of critical IT computer systems and data assets.
Other benefits of Virtualization:
- Fewer physical servers required
- Reduced maintenance and energy costs
- Enables move to the cloud
- Longer hardware refresh cycles
- Instant offsite access to files and applications
- Ability to use thin clients
- Less downtime and fewer unplanned outages
- Quicker and easier backup and disaster recovery
- Less time spent providing desk side support
- More efficient IT infrastructure
- More efficient deployment of hardware and software installation and upgrades
- Reduced operating costs
- Increased security
Virtualization provides high availability for critical applications, and streamlines application deployment and migrations. Virtualization can simplify IT operations and allow IT organizations to respond faster to changing business demands.
The future of enterprise IT management will be based on virtual computing. Businesses around the world are beginning to adopt virtualization and are reaping its numerous benefits. What are you waiting for?
