Sooner or later, your old reliable server will no longer do its job, and it will be time to replace it. If you have several servers, this technology refresh cycle may be the right time to consider consolidating several servers into one, using server virtualization.
The Basis of Server Virtualization:
Server Virtualization is not a new concept: it’s been used in mainframes for decades to allow users to define a virtual machine within a host machine, with the exact specifications they need, and to keep those needs separated from other virtual machines in the host. Each year more and more workloads are on virtual servers, and since 2014, more than half of workloads are virtualized.
Advances in technology, coupled with a proliferation of servers in Information Technology (IT) environments of mid-market businesses, paved the way for widespread adoption of virtualization in that space, and it’s become the norm.
There are major players in virtualization on the hardware and software front, including HP, IBM, VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft, providing technologies specifically designed for the SMB market.
Virtualization advantages for mid-market sized businesses:
Energy Savings: a virtual host running multiple virtual machines typically will require less power and less cooling than the same number of separate servers, plus they will take up less space.
Agility: deploying virtual machines takes much less time than setting up and deploying separate servers. This can be extremely helpful in disaster recovery scenarios, such as trying to replace a down server or restoring a server to a pre-disaster state. In addition, deploying new servers is easier and quicker.
Flexibility: each virtual machine will have its own operating system, CPU, and memory allocation, and these can be easily changed as needed. Moreover, management of these machines can be done from a single management console.
Cost Savings: The costs of a suitable host machine plus the virtual machines that run on it are less than if there were a number of separate server machines.
You should consider virtualization if the benefits listed above appeal to you! Contact Clare Computer Solutions and let’s have a strategic conversation. Your next technology refresh may be your opportunity to save money and time while increasing performance and agility!
