As I hinted yesterday, over my next 6 posts, I am going to be talking about real ways to cut IT costs which are relevant now - in difficult economic circumstances - but are equally relevant during more normal times.
Part 1 – Virtualization
For people too busy to keep tabs on the latest technical developments, Virtualization has been a huge buzz for at least the last 3 or 4 years, though it is debatable that only now is it really hitting the mainstream and becoming a useful tool to organizations of all sizes.
What is Virtualization?
In a nutshell, virtualization is the creation of an operating environment that functions separately from the host system it is running on. There are many flavors available from Server to Desktop to Application and a number of players in the market, the main ones being Microsoft, VMware and Citrix.
Why Should My Company be Interested?
There are many benefits but here are a few key benefits to your business that are game changers when using Server virtualization.
- A physical host server can run many virtual machines all running different operating systems and different applications. One server, for example, could support 8 separate virtual machines that you would have had to host on 8 separate physical servers. This one benefit means a reduction of 7 servers in your server room, 7 less machines to power and 7 less machines generating heat that you would have to spend yet more money on to keep cool. We have 7 less pieces of hardware to maintain and 7 less sets of components to fail. You get the idea.
- If your business needs to deploy a new application, lab or throw more resources at an existing system, virtual servers can be brought online in seconds and made ready to service the business demand. Your infrastructure becomes dynamic and can be matched to changing requirements. No longer do you need to purchase more hardware, wait for the systems to be assembled delivered, racked and then prepped. Resources can be made immediately available.
- Have you still got an old NT4 server running a key application on a dusty server that you know is going to give up at a critical moment. By using physical to virtual conversion, you can have the system up and running on a virtual platform in no time and that old dinosaur can finally be removed along with the legacy support issues.
- Most servers run at low utilization and could be doing more -by making a server pull it’s weight you get a much better ROI on any server hardware investment, reduction in electricity bills which could be cut down to 20% of what they were and the green credentials that go with that, let alone the ongoing monetary savings.
- If you were to render a virtual system inoperable, you can have a new one back up and running in seconds without impact to your users. No system rebuilds necessary or long outages (assuming you keep backups and haven’t corrupted your data, but that’s another story!)
- If you mix Server Virtualization with a few other technologies like iSCSI, you can have a fault tolerant, highly available system that used to be the realm of the biggest organizations for next to nothing in expenditure. Its possible to rig this up on three laptops!
OK, What Types of Virtualization Are There?
Here goes in a nutshell:
Server Virtualization
Server virtualization creates a separate operating system environment that is logically independent from the host server but to an end user or applications installed they will not know any different.
Desktop Virtualization
Desktop virtualization can come in several styles, the first allows you to run the actual desktop system on a server and the users access it by using a remote protocol, so all your desktops are in one place even if you users aren’t. In its second guise, a user can have a virtual machine running on their desktop which gives them a second system (or more) to use for a particular application. This is popular with Mac owners who run a version of Windows in a Parallels box on MacOS.
Application Virtualization
Products such as Microsoft App-V use an idea where each application runs in it’s own cut down environment or sandbox, that is in a layer separate from the host OS. It can remove the issue of conflicts, multiple installs, relentless updates on each PC as instead it can be managed in one central place and delivered on demand.
Presentation Virtualization
The final type is actually Terminal Services with a new name, where the desktop or application is run on a shared server and only the screen images and mouse and keyboard are sent between the user and server. It is a great choice for remote working.
Some of the above options deliver different benefits that suit specific situations that I will cover in future blogs. The main thing to remember as always is that if the system isn’t designed and managed carefully it can easily cause issues just as in the physical world.
So as you can hopefully see, Virtualization benefits are many-fold, from reduction in hardware, electricity costs, servers costs, C02 emissions, management costs but also giving your business infrastructure a dynamic edge and agility that can be switched on in an instant.
And the best bit? The vendors are falling over themselves to give you the software for free!
