What Is Virtualization?
Server virtualization is the method of using a software application to partition one physical server into multiple isolated virtual machines. Servers are designed to run just one operating system and application at a time, but with this process, we are able to optimize physical server resources by running multiple operating systems and applications on a single server.
How Does Virtualization Work?
A virtual machine (VM), or commonly known as a virtual computer system, is a “guest machine” on the physical server or “host machine.” Each virtual machine is completely independent with its own operating system and application. The software that creates these virtual machines on the host machine is called a hypervisor.
Hypervisors that we support:
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- VMware ESX/ESXi
What Are The Benefits Of Virtualization?
- Reduced Hardware Costs – Hardware is generally the most expensive equipment in your data center. Virtualization will greatly reduce the amount of hardware needed by optimizing space of a server. It will also lead to easier and quicker maintenance, less electricity expended and less downtime.
- Improved Disaster Recovery – By consolidating to fewer servers, you are able to allocate unused hardware to disaster recovery. There is also no longer a need for an identical hardware backup site because you can move from one physical server to another with little or no reconfiguration. With virtualization we can test a disaster recovery failover instead of waiting to see if it works or not.
- Simpler Migration to the Cloud – The shift to virtual servers will help you progress towards virtualizing your environment and start developing a mind-set for using the cloud.
- No Vendor Lock-In – These virtual machines provide more flexibility when it comes to hardware vendors. The virtual machines are more accepting of what they can run on, granting more freedom on the hardware purchased.
- Reduced Carbon Footprint – Consolidating your hardware usage will significantly cut down on the amount of electricity used. It’s not only cutting costs on your energy bills or reducing your carbon footprint, but it’s also helping your company image as your business will be much more “green.”
- Increased Development & Testing Efficiency – Virtual servers allow your business to effortlessly create new testing environments. This requires much less hardware committed to the testing and the isolated testing environment implies much more safety in the case that something unfortunate happens.
- Accelerated Application Implementation – The virtual machines can be moved from one server to another and redeployed much faster and easier. With recent snapshots of your server, you can reduce new server deployment time to minutes.