Virtualization is still relatively young as a solution for today's environments. As virtualization technology continues to mature, the landscape is changing rapidly. Server virtualization is being used quite a bit in data center environments and is "trickling" down to small and medium businesses as hardware and software refreshes occur. Desktop virtualization is maturing and there are a number of very interesting solutions now available which solve some real problems. Virtual data centers and DaaS (Desktop as a service) are on the near horizon. Look for us to have some exciting announcements about this soon.

Competition is driving some big changes in strategy and every major player has come out with a virtualization solution. Earlier this year, Microsoft released their new generation virtualization platform called Hyper-V. Most importantly, they offered it as a $28 add on to Windows Server 2008. This move forced other vendors to make some major pricing changes. VMware began offering its ESXi hypervisor as a free download. Citrix removed the previous memory and virtual machine limitations on its free XenServer Express. What is happening is the hypervisor, the basic software component that divides a physical computer into multiple virtual machines is becoming a free commodity. The major vendors are going to compete with and make their money on management tools and software, along with support.

 

What this means for Small and Medium Business is that it is possible to enjoy the advantages and return on investment virtualization offers at a lower cost. These free versions are still built on high performance bare metal hypervisors rather than the older and lower performing host based platforms. They just limit the management of the physical host to one at a time. If some of the more enhanced functions such as live migration are desired later on they can always be added then. What are some of the reasons a Small or Medium business may want to begin virtualizing ?

·         Footprint: A smaller number of physical servers take less space. That space may be in your own limited size server room or in a data center.

·         Energy consumption: A smaller number of physical servers consume less power and generate less heat. The cost of power to run these servers and the cooling required to keep environmental conditions within specification are significant.

·         Flexibility and agility: The ability to quickly roll out a new server on existing hardware saves a good deal of time and enables a business to react quickly to changing conditions at a lower cost. Many times, all of the work to roll out a new server can be done remotely further saving time and money. This "agility" may be one of the strongest advantages to virtualizing.

·         Less downtime: Since virtual machines are a set of files, they can be moved between host servers as needs arise, perhaps to perform maintenance on one host. They can even be moved live or the move be scheduled though these features are not among those available on the free versions.

·         Disaster Recovery: Also since the virtual machines are a set of files, they can be restored to dissimilar hardware, moved to another physical host or even another location.

·         Testing and development: A virtual environment is ideal to test new patches, software, operating systems or configuration. Things can easily be rolled back and things can be tested in a non production environment without requiring an additional rack of server hardware.

ActivSupport is a certified VMware Partner, a Microsoft Gold Partner, a CItrix Partner and an experienced Linux consultant. We can offer businesses creative solutions based on VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer or Open Source Xen. For a free consultation about your infrastructure virtualization project, call ActivSupport at 1-877-ACTIVNET (1-877-228-4863) or use our online contact form.