Would virtualization work for you?
Is it the right answer for your business?
Is it just hype?
Since the answer is “depends”, you will need to ask yourself these questions:
- Is there substantial benefits when you take to virtualization?
- How do you understand what it’s all about?
- How would you go about making decisions about whether or not you need to consider it for your business?
This post should help you extract the juice off and allow you decide whether it's hype or if it's the need of the hour.
“Virtualization enables one server or computer to act as many” said Dan Chu, the VP of emerging products and services at VMware, in an article titled “”Virtualization Enters the SMB world” on Server Watch[1] -- a truly succinct definition indeed.
If you are a small business, all you will need is perhaps a LAN connected server with some client computers connected to it. You won’t need virtualization for that.
However, if you are a business large enough with an insatiable need for computing power (some examples being financial institutions, banks, large companies with data and those that need constant computing power, etc), virtualization is beneficial.
If you’d like a snapshot view of why virtualization is important? A Microsoft’s Virtualization Whitepaper[2] has some great pointers on How Virtualization helps small businesses:
Avoid the expense that comes with “One-Server-one-application” approach to Information Technology Management. When multiple servers can co-exist on the same physical hardware, it brings your IT costs down, reduces or removes unnecessary system complexity and helps you to manage your operations effectively.
Virtualization makes IT administration easier.
Virtualization allows business continuity by drastically cutting down disruptive events and reducing server downtime. It helps you to deploy efficient server maintenance schedules and simplifies disaster and recovery planning.
You can support business critical legacy applications and dynamically assign (in real-time) server resources as per your needs – all of which helps in your business growth while making you agile with your IT systems.
Once you have a strategy in place as to how to use virtualization for your company, all it takes is mere execution – there are plenty of virtualization technologies, layers or even full-service complete IT management & networking vendors who will do it for you. While there are plenty of benefits off virtualization for your business, it's you who needs to decide whether it works for you or not. We have been in the business of IT and Network Consulting and you could always ask us if you need to.
What do you think? Is it hype? Does it work for your business? Can you do without it?
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References:
[1] Serverwatch.com -- Virtualization Enters the SMB world
[2] Microsoft Virtualization Whitepaper
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