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Virtualization, in simple terms, is moving physical servers to virtual ones. This shift allows users to use just one piece of hardware to support multiple systems. Virtualization is referred to as Green IT, because by using less hardware you are using less energy through server consolidation.
Availability is also one of the most important elements when it comes to a data center, making the reliability of trusted virtualization vendors such as Microsoft and VMware a potential means of cutting costs, saving money, and reducing energy usage.
Virtualized servers can be a great way to cut costs, but also come with some concern in terms of security. If you have confidential data on servers that are outside your facility, it can cause some concern, especially for financial businesses. Some of the well-known brands of virtualized servers include Microsoft, IBM, HP, and RackSpace.
With more services and vendors of virtualizing popping up every year, it can be tricky to find out which are the best choices and why is virtualization an important technology trend.
One of the most important features of virtualization is that it saves money. By using one machine to host multiple systems, it can lower costs for hardware and power as well as save you space in your data centers. Virtualization also increases the flexibility of your hardware and software. Did you know that 50-60% of all servers are now virtualized? This figure demonstrates that virtualization is clearly having an impact on organizations.
Some of the major players in virtualization technologies include Microsoft Virtual Server and VMWare. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 allows for rapid configuration and deployment of new servers. The more recent Hyper-V technology brings a lot of improvements and modifications that save money and increase availabiltiy. VMware Infrastructure 3 is self-optimizing and offers scalability. Both virtualization technologies improve security as well as disaster and recovery needs.
Migrating and consolidating your production servers can lead to lower hardware and administration costs through clustering, which allows for higher availability. Managing core infrastructure workloads that are supported by the virtual servers saves time, money, improves information worker productivity, and creates less hassle for IT administrators.
In order to best evaluate how virtualization can help you and your business, start by doing a Capacity Assessment. In order to determine how to consolidate your machines and systems, you will first need to know what you are currently using. You may also want to do an ROI Analysis.
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