A Brief Guide to Virtualization
In the past it was a requirement that every important application (e.g. web server, file and print server, database server) that companies relied on was installed on its own independent piece of hardware. The reason for this was that if the application crashed and brought the server down the other applications on the server would not be affected.
Over the years servers have continued to develop and become more powerful. These developments coupled with some nifty software lets us run many computers inside one computer or server i.e. Virtualization.
Each computer that is running inside of the main server is called a virtual machine and each virtual machine is independent of the other virtual machines running on the same server.
Being able to run many computers inside of one computer or server can offer businesses many benefits in today’s competitive environment and helps to give companies the edge over their competitors. Some of these advantages are:
Massive savings in power, hardware and administration costs as businesses no longer require one server for one application, thus the shear volume of servers a business requires can be dramatically cut.
Every virtual machine is independent of the hardware it is running on. This is possible because each virtual machine is essentially a large file and can easily be moved from one location to another. Transferring these files can be achieved over the internet, saving it on a hard disk or even on a USB key. Once the file is in the new location it can be installed as a new virtual machine.
This process of moving the virtual machine can happen very fast over the internet. This lets us: (a) Move virtual machines off our servers for hardware maintenance (b) Move our virtual machines to more powerful servers as needs require. This could be during busy periods or if the demand has risen.
It is important to note that virtualization is not limited to servers. Many companies are now running a virtual machine for every employee that is working in their company. This virtual machine is then configured in one central site and the employee connects to the virtual machine using a standard PC, Laptop or a thin client.
The advantages of desktop virtualization are increased security; reduced hardware costs and a reduction in the management time required.
About the Author:Mark Kelly
Technical Consultant
Iping LTD
For total network piece of mind
www.iping.org
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