Virtualization is certainly not a new
concept, but it seems to be gaining
steam in recent years. When a company creates a virtual infrastructure, a single
computer can do the work of several,
allowing access to multiple operating systems and applications. Virtualization can
save companies money on computing
expenses and energy costs, and it helps
increase security and efficiency.
“One of the most promising features of
virtualization is that it satisfies the various
computing needs of management, allowing
them to quickly, efficiently and safely
achieve all their objectives,” says Steven
Patterson, senior director of sales of the
solutions group at Technology Integration
Group (TIG). “It offers a great deal of flexibility and allows businesses to guarantee
up-time of critical applications.”
Besides being able to run multiple systems and applications on the same computer at the same time, virtualization provides
both local and remote access, so your data
is always available. And virtualization does-n’t end with servers, adds Patterson. Just
about all aspects of your infrastructure can
be virtualized, including networks, servers,
storage, desktops, applications, user interfaces and databases.
Smart Business spoke with Patterson
about the intricacies of virtualization and
how it can enhance business and contribute to the bottom line.
How did the concept of virtualization come
about?
As a company expands and business
grows, everything has to grow along with it,
especially networks and systems. Also,
we’ve been seeing several trends in the market, the largest being consolidation efforts,
disaster recovery and business continuance. Virtualization addresses these needs.
Companies need to get more out of less —
they need to drive business and achieve
more using the technologies they already
have deployed. Virtualization allows companies to leverage all aspects of their systems,
giving them flexibility within those infrastructures. It allows them to move virtual
systems around as necessary and to do so
within a financially sound business model.
Why is virtualization becoming a growing
trend?
In the past, virtualization was costly and
difficult. In today’s highly technological
world, virtualization is fast and easy.
Virtualization is a very scalable architecture, and it gives organizations flexibility in
how they utilize their systems. It’s interesting that there is a lot of discussion around
virtualization on the front end (servers and
systems), but there’s also a growing trend in
the back end (the actual infrastructure and
storage space). I think both trends will
meet somewhere in the middle, and we’ll
see continuing growth in virtualization
across the board. As a concept, virtualization covers server consolidation, disaster
recovery, testing, training and portability —
just to name a few — and it is a trend that
will continue to grow.
How can companies benefit from virtualization?
Purely having systems highly available
and being able to leverage resources when
needed is a huge benefit. Certainly, the
green initiative is important to a growing
number of companies. Virtualization improves the utilization of your technology
investments, reduces your data center
footprint, and lowers power, cooling and
cable management costs. Here in Southern
California, where we experience brown-outs, the cost of utilities and power is a
growing concern. Plus, it makes the work
of your IT staff easier, saving you time,
money and valuable resources.
Business continuance and disaster recovery are major issues these days for most
businesses. In today’s business world, a
company can’t afford to be down for an
hour, let alone a day or longer. Virtualization will help you recover from any disaster and minimize any disruption, allowing
your company to press on with business
as usual.
Also, virtualization helps your testing and
development environments to achieve
financial gains and scale, allowing companies to deploy faster and achieve benefits
of being the first to market with offerings.
Finally, as more and more businesses are
getting into a high level of compliance
needs, virtualization helps ensure these
concerns are addressed.
What should companies watch out for when
implementing virtualization?
As with anything, some applications simply won’t match the capabilities of a virtualization effort. Some may have high I/O
(input/output) or be real resource hogs
that just are not good candidates. Getting
all your virtualized pieces to cohesively
hum can be challenging at times. Because
of this, you need to have a complete understanding of your systems and infrastructure before you even think about implementing a virtualization solution. That is
where professional organizations like TIG
come into play to assist customers.
STEVEN PATTERSON is the senior director of sales of the solutions group at Technology Integration Group (TIG). Reach him at (818)
389-0564 or [email protected].
