5 Benefits of switching to Virtualization Technology
In today’s worl
d, the main reason why IT organizations are considering virtualization of some, or all, of their computing infrastructures is that the technology helps reduce costs drastically.
Consider, for example, the case of the server infrastructure where you would increase the utilization of your servers from 15% to 80%, thus eliminating the need of extra physical servers, which are costly to run and maintain. In this scenario, you are simply consolidating what would have been multiple physical servers onto one machine running a number of virtual servers.
Such a setup brings about several cost and productivity benefits that are described below. In this blog post, we will discuss the 5 major benefits of switching to virtualization technology.
1. Cheaper implementation
Consider, for example, the case of the server infrastructure where instead of purchasing 5 Windows Server 2003 licences, which would cost you something in the region of $10,000 – $15,000 in licensing fees, you would simply purchase 1 license and host the remaining 4 servers without any extra cost. Furthermore, having fewer physical server saves you money on power bills, maintenance fees and datacentre office space and fees.
2. Business doesn’t stop
Consolidating software applications, operating systems and hardware platforms, leads to fewer redundant physical devices needed to serve as primary machines. Conventional high-availability setups often require a 1:1 ratio of software-to-hardware while in the virtualized environment multiple servers can fail over to a set of backup servers. This therefore allows for a many-to-one configuration ratio, which increases service uptime and availability.
3. Higher availability and uptime
One of the main advantages of virtual servers is that they are completely segregated from one another, running as though they rely on separate hardware, which decreases downtime during maintenance periods. This means that changes can be made to one virtual server without affecting others sharing the same hardware. This means that maintenance can be done in a production environment without affecting business and causing disruptions.
4. Speedy Installations
Virtual devices allow fast installations of new server applications or router and switch software services, because you no longer have to purchase equipment that can take days or weeks to get it ordered, delivered and set up. Instead, you simply configure a new virtual machine, router, switch or storage drive using the special virtualization management software tool you use. This process generally consists of simpoly copying an image, thereby significantly reducing setup times.
5. Corporate directives
Corporate control mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm Leach Bliley and HIPAA have implemented stringent privacy, security and auditing requirements on organizations. This has led organizations to use consolidated computing and networking infrastructures. Virtualization helps support higher management, security and tracking that the stricter directives required, in a lucrative way. It is innately easier to manage and enforce policies and to configure software from a central, common console than in a distributed manner, which makes it difficult to remain up to date with software updates.
Two years ago, I would’ve been skeptical about any claim that server productivity would jump from fifteen percent to a whopping eighty percent solely because of virtualization. That just seemed too much of an exaggeration even in an industry where today’s tech is tomorrow’s antique. But after having worked on a virtualized system for the better part of this year, I must admit that virtualization has turned me into a believer.
From a manager’s point of view, virtualization technology is immediately more practical from a cost stand point. I think Ben (quite literally) got it right on the money when he used the first point as an example. Why spend X thousands of dollars on licenses when you could simply (and legitimately) have everything hosted virtually. The costs you’d be able to save could go into other much needed areas like server maintenance, upgrades and new software.
Our company was quick to shift into virtualization technology a few years back. Management even afforded company wide seminars and workshops to get the staff up to speed on working and maintaining virtualized environments. Now, I can’t imagine working without it. Faster installation time, dramatically decreased downtimes, and lower overall costs, I believe that virtualization tech is essential in keeping any software or IT firm relevant, efficient and cost effective.
It’s a miracle how IT businesses can hope to sustain themselves outside of virtualization technology. When it comes to running a business that needs to be up to date twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, any sort of downtime should be kept to a minimum (or be eliminated completely). Virtualization technology keeps business operations at full steam, on time all the time, and faster than ever before.
This article raises some very fine points about the benefits of virtualization technology. But despite all this, there are still some – I wouldn’t call them problems per say but— room for improvement when it comes to the field of virtualization technology. It’d be great if you folks at GFI could run an article on that. I appreciate it when you show the other side of the picture when it comes to tech specific issues like this.
It does seem as if corporate control mandates such as Sarbanes-oxley, Gramm Leach Biley and HIPPA have been a driving force (be it direct or indirect) in influencing a lot of companies to implement virtualization technology. I believe such mandates have made companies more efficient both from a cost and production standpoint. Now, it’s a matter of companies making sure that they are maximizing the use of the virtualization technology available to them.
I guess having virtualization technology readily integrated into the workflow of your company affords you and your staff the benefit of having as little down time as possible. With your systems and servers running at full capacity (and much more efficiently) you can definitely expect productivity to spike with the use of virtualization technology. Cheaper implementation, lower costs, higher system availability and speedier installations are all direct benefits of this.
Hi everybody,
Thank you for all the comments!
A point to ponder about is why certain people and their organizations might be reluctant to switch to virtualization? I guess that many people still maintain the value: “If It’s Not Broken, Don’t Fix It”. Organizations running legacy systems which are extremely stable yet costly to run might be reluctant to make changes to their infrastructure because they fear they might break the system they currently have in place.
What do you think about this?
Regards,
Ben
While there are potential licensing savings (thru optimizing of number of processors, cores, machine instances etc.) running an instance of Windows Server as a virtual machine requires a server license for each INSTANCE. While fewer physical boxes, energy savings and other considerations can certainly reduce overall cost, the licensing example in 1. is not accurate.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9ef7fc47-c531-40f1-a4e9-9859e593a1f1