Innovative Business Solutions Through Virtualisation Technologies
As virtualisation separates the dependencies between software and hardware, new possibilities are presented that are unheard of when using traditional physical hardware. Organisations are finding that specific challenges, widely considered as ongoing pain points, now have a real solution through virtualisation. Of these pain points, just some of the most commonly identified are discussed below.
Tape based backed solutions have always been unreliable. Tapes only have a limited shelf life and can be affected by factors such heat, dust and magnetic fields to name but a few. Even if the tapes do work when a restore is needed, the process is time consuming and can be complicated to manage. Full 'bare metal' system recoveries can be difficult to achieve so instead, an operating system rebuild followed by a data recovery from tape generally proves to be the only feasible solution. This is of course time consuming and prone to mistakes. Virtualisation provides the means to backup an entire virtual machine easily, including operating system, configuration files, applications and data. Bare metal restores now happen in minutes, not hours or days.
Traditionally tedious and labour intensive, server provisioning has always presented costly delays during project initiation. With virtualisation new servers can be deployed in record time whilst at the same time complying with corporate build standards and methodologies, enabling new initiatives to begin right away. Capital investment in new server hardware also becomes a thing of the past as new virtual servers are simply added to, and hosted by, existing shared hardware.
Fact: As organisations continue to grow so does the IT infrastructure. New initiatives designed to empower the organisation to improve productivity are, as a by-product producing busier and busier data centres, quickly taking them to capacity. New systems not only require physical space but also place heavy demand on ancillary components such as power, cooling and network infrastructure.
Virtualisation can drastically reduce the number of physical servers required to support these systems with a typical consolidation ratio of 10:1. Through consolidation organisations can expect:
- Reduced cooling costs
- Reduced power consumption
- Reduced infrastructure costs associated with the installation of additional physical power and network utilities
- Improved system management
- Huge savings on maintenance contracts associated with supporting masses of physical servers - annually!
Disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity may be in the back of most organisations minds largely due to the complexity and cost implications. However, recent events are forcing the issue back out into the open as vulnerability aspects of the enterprise are reconsidered.
DR solutions range in complexity from basic tape based restores to 3 rd party facilities that provide a temporary base in which to locate a subset of key users and data in the event of a disaster. Each is either unreliable, costly or both. Rarely do solutions offer a seamless and reliable way of switching business operations from one site to another, an essential basis of a business continuity plan.
Virtualisation by nature of its hardware independence and portability can help make business continuity a reality. Identical clones of production systems, either physical or virtual, can be replicated to the contingency site ready to assume the role should the need arise. Further more, the contingency counterpart servers no longer represent a 1:1 mirror of critical production hardware. Instead, they are virtualised to a reduced number of physical servers reducing the initial outlay and physical space required.
Revisiting business continuity challenges through the use virtualisation unleashes the potential of the continuity investment. Wouldn't it be nice to employ the contingency hardware for production use as and when needed, clawing back some of the investment to practically boost productivity? You can now.
These are just a few examples where virtualisation is delivering, over and over again within the enterprise. Why not contact us to discover how virtualisation can work for you.
