What is Virtualisation?

Virtualisation for Business People, by Force 9, Gloucester

Virtualisation is a way to get the best return from your investment in computers and adopt a green IT strategy.

A Virtual Machine is a software model of a computer. It behaves like a computer, has its own operating system, network connections, disc space, and application software.

Businesses tend to have many computers, all with attendant software, service, support and power costs. However, modern computers are so powerful that they can spend much of their time idle. Users of business admin systems tend to use their machines sporadically. They use systems like ERP, email, word processing and spreadsheets that hardly tax the computer at all.

One Computer Supports Many UsersVirtualisation Savings Explained

Virtual Server

A single physical computer can host many virtual machines, and this is where the advantages start to appear. One physical computer can take the place of several, saving capital outlay and installation costs when it comes to upgrade time. Moreover, it uses less power, thereby saving on-going support costs and requiring less attention from your hard-pressed IT department.

The most obvious place to use this technique is in your server room. Companies often have several servers running different applications. By moving these applications to virtual servers they can all run on one physical machine.

In fact, you'd need to keep two physical machines: one as a back-up to the other. Virtualisation technology is very sophisticated these days. If one physical machine gets busy it can off-load work to the other. If an application fails on one machine, the other will take over and users won't notice the failure.

Virtual Desktop

The term "Virtual desktop" has a couple of meanings.

In the first scenario, users run software on their desktop machines just as they do now. The difference is that configuration and upgrades are managed from a server. The main benefit is the time saving in IT.

Except for some power users, office staff and managers need only a cheap PC on their desks which doesn’t need upgrading when your company has to upgrade Windows. In fact, they share one machine with other people in the business. They use their usual spreadsheet but it's actually running on a server, not on their desktop. They have their own private disc space, but that's on a server too.

This all saves IT time, too, because:

Users can't add new software or change the configuration: consistency makes supporting them easier, saves IT time;
They can't introduce malware or viruses, reducing the risk of infection and interruption to business;
Adding new users or new applications is easier: roll-out is simpler and quicker, which delivers the savings sooner;
Back-ups are automatic, on the server, so disaster recovery is more reliable and less painful.

Virtualisation Business Benefits

The business advantages of virtualisation boil down to greater Efficiency, Availability, Security, and Scalability:

Reduce IT capital investment: buy fewer servers and cheaper desktop computers;
Reduce the load on IT: consistency reduces maintenance and IT support costs;
Reduce business risk: regular, centralised back-ups and good disaster recovery;
Improve business continuity: High Availability options reduce system down time and enable faster recovery;
Waste less time: reduce exposure to viruses that stop or delay business processes;
Improve cash flow: earlier savings through faster deployment of new applications;
Make staff more flexible and add new staff efficiently: one desktop configuration so people can help each other better;
More IT opportunities: release IT time to focus on applications development and other tasks;
Reduce carbon footprint: reduce energy consumption and improve space utilisation.

Force 9 Business Solutions Ltd

We offer a complete range of virtualisation consulting and implementation services. Call us on 0870-410-4149 or use this form to contact us.