Virtualization allows organisations to reduce their hardware, software and IT labour costs by providing multiple virtual servers and software instances on a single machine.
Multiple virtual machines can reside on the one computer and behave like a real computer with their own operating systems.
For example, a host computer running Windows may host a guest virtual machine running Linux.
Hardware virtualization benefits
- Centralises administrative tasks, greatly reducing IT labour costs.
- Increases flexibility in your server environment – the ability to rapidly scale up or down and improve ROI on existing resources.
- Operating system and software upgrades and updates can be managed more efficiently, with less risk of downtime.
- Allows IT managers to safely test and develop software and apps in a secure environment without affecting their main IT systems.
- Recover quickly from system failure, maintaining business continuity.
- IT Managers can take “snapshots” – copying a virtual machine’s entire system at any point in time – before carrying out an upgrade or major software change. Then, if there is a problem, they can easily revert the VM back to the state when the snapshot was taken.
- Virtualisation allows you to reduce hardware costs and reduce your greenhouse footprint.
HP offers a range of virtualization software and delivery models, creating well-managed virtual clients, with applications and client operating environments hosted on servers and storage in the data center.
This means your users can access their desktop from any remote location, without being tied to a single desktop computer.
Session virtualization allows multiple users to connect and log into a shared but powerful computer over the network, reducing the costs in installing copies of expensive software on all desktop computers.
For example, VMware’s VMotion solution can replace an entire virtual machine instantaneously from one server to another, and makes use of virtual storage, applications and networking. The network is also virtualised by ESX Server, so the virtual machine retains its network identity and connections after the migration process.
Typically, virtualisation can reduce the number of server machines required by 50%.
However, virtualisation can cause performance issues if the machine’s memory, processors and hard drive speed are not configured correctly or are not given sufficient capacity.
Call Evotec IT on 1300 133 996 for free consultation on your virtualisation requirements.