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In a networked environment, the old school way is to run each application independently on its own server. This ensures applications reside quietly in their own little space, and problems, when they do occur, are easy to pin point. It is a great game plan except for this: You end up using only about 10-20 percent of CPU power and storage capacity of today’s computers. The result is hardware overkill. Imagine if you will, an ever expanding data center with racks and racks of servers, consuming vast amounts of power and generating a lot of heat. Enter virtualization, a process by which software makes a single physical server behave like two or more systems. Virtualization has its roots in the 60s when IBM used it to create different environments on a single mainframe. Its recent rise to popularity is due in part to the increased power and capacity of modern computers and the exponential growth of datacenters as the world becomes more digital. If your organization has not embraced the virtual world, you should be aware of the benefits. They include: Consolidate physical space. One of the biggest reasons for visualization is to reduce the physical number of servers you use, which results in fewer racks, less networking gear, and less floor space. Reduce energy bills. Fewer machines mean less energy to keep them running and less air conditioning to keep them cool, saving capital and promoting green energy initiatives. Provision servers rapidly. Remember in the old days when you had to fill out a purchase order, wait for shipping and then rack, stack and cable a new machine? Virtualization lets you fill requests for a new server almost immediately. Keep applications separate. By running each application within its own virtual environment, you can ensure they won’t impact each other when you upgrade or change them.
Maintain legacy applications. If you need to maintain old applications running on old versions of operating systems, you can run them in a virtual environment. This ensures that your IT planning won’t be restricted by a few applications. Run multiple operating systems on a single server. Virtualization gives you a more flexible way of running your operating systems. Instead of having one server with one operating system, you can run several operating systems, such as Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Linux, all on a single machine. Create a safe testing environment. You can also use virtual machines to create a safe testing environment, for trying out new code or checking malware to find out how it performs. Virtual machines are effective in testing new applications before system wide deployment, to ensure systems files don’t get damaged. Reduce administrative burden. Virtual machines are easier to manage than real ones. For instance, you can accomplish hardware upgrades using a management console application, rather than having to power down the machine, install the hardware, verify the change and then power up again. To learn more about keeping your data safe and backup and recovery on virtual machines, visit AppAssure and download a free trial version of the software.
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