Virtualization and What it Can Mean for Your Business

Digitization has seen many of us owning and managing multiple connected devices. From smartphones to PCs and notebooks, so much processing power is lying around. Unless you’re utilizing resources 24/7, that’s a lot of resources going to waste.

Virtualization is one way of better managing those resources, enabling you better control over how much is available and when. Yet despite its many advantages, not every business may gain equal benefits from this technology.

Virtualization uses an application called a hypervisor to simulate the hardware needed for an entire system out of a pool of shared resources. Each of the systems, called Virtual Machines (VMs), are for all effects independently operable.

A well-equipped host machine can operate multiple VMs, each capable of being configured with a separate set of hardware and software. For example, you can build VMs with varying CPU cores, memory, and Operating Systems (OS).

7 Ways Virtualization Can Benefit Businesses

Most simply put, virtualization is a good way of gaining good scalability while reducing technology spending. Here are some of the ways it can prove beneficial to your business if implemented correctly.

1. Increasing Productivity

IT personnel spend a lot of time building, deploying, and keeping systems up to date. With less physical hardware and a centralized point of command, virtualization can speed up this process significantly. There is, essentially, a single point of access to all systems.

With IT being able to deploy new VMs within minutes, new staff joining the business can be assigned a thin client (lightweight system) and connected to a VM at any time. The overall effect is much greater agility across the board.

2. Maximizing Resource Usage

Most systems deployed in an office environment have periods where they remain idle. This scenario applies to both servers and client machines on the network. For example, imagine if you have 20 staff, 10 of whom are in sales and typically not in the office. That’s half your hardware often going unused.

VMs share a portion of the host system’s resources, but the rule on how those get allocated are somewhat flexible. Although each VM needs an assigned amount, the host can allocate idle resources elsewhere as necessary.

Overall, this means you can do more with less, something with which many business owners can resonate closely.

3. Improve Resiliency and Minimize Downtime

IT problems can strike both servers and office workstations at any time, but you can quickly rectify problems with virtualized systems. If one gets hacked or infected by malware (data loss is a real threat to all servers, see the numbers here), all you need to do is destroy and restore it.

Pre-built images help make this possible, so creating entirely new VMs or restoring broken ones can take minutes instead of days. The result is that organizational resiliency, as a whole, moves to a whole new level.

4. Greater Flexibility

For businesses that require varying platforms to work with, VMs offer unparalleled flexibility. You can mix and match OS without any concern for hardware requirements. All you need to do is manage the number of licenses available for use.

The flexible nature of VMs also offers you a suitable testing environment for new applications to run in before organization-wide deployment. Using VMs, it’s even possible to simulate entire office networks to test more extensively.

5. More Cost-effective Operations

Since the focus in virtualized environments shifts to only a few critical systems, businesses can realize much more in cost savings than you might imagine. Only your core server units need to be more robust, with most workstations running with minimal requirements.

Server hardware generally has a much longer lifespan, and thin clients can be extremely cheap to replace. Cutting down on the number of servers can also reduce cooling requirements for your IT hub, further reducing the bills.

6. Becoming More Green

As the hardware and electricity consumed decrease, you’re essentially becoming much more eco-friendly. Today, many countries are becoming more focused on carbon footprint, and a smaller one may even gain you some tax breaks.

7. Better Legacy System Handling

Many more mature businesses often have an assortment of systems they’ve deployed over time. Some may not be quite so easily migrated to newer systems or simply be not worth the cost of migration.

In scenarios such as this, VMs shine since almost any environment can be simulated and managed. You can run multiple legacy systems on the same network with very little fear that any hardware you need might get phased out.

Is Virtualization Right for Your Business?

By now, you should have an idea of the advantages virtualization can bring to a business. It allows for much more streamlined operations and a high degree of cost savings. Studies have shown that virtualization can reduce IT spend by as much as 70% (more cost-saving figures here) in the proper context.

Yet, like everything in life, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. As a result, despite its power, not every business can benefit from virtualization. This fact is especially valid in today’s environment where Cloud services are becoming increasingly common. Still, even that can work with carefully planned integration.

There are some important caveats to keep in mind when considering virtualization for your business;

The economy of scale – Since you will still need (on average) two core server systems, the cost-savings of virtualization will rarely kick in for smaller organizations. Businesses that intend to deploy VMs for too few two staff may see increased expenditure.

Increased requirements – Some businesses may require specifically powerful computing elements in many of their systems. For example, video production houses may need powerful processors, while graphic design firms may need specific video hardware.

Infrastructure – For businesses that have a widely dispersed workforce, virtualization can be a double-edged sword. It may play a heavy strain on remote workers’ Internet bandwidth, and some may not have access to sufficient enough for virtualized environments to work smoothly.

Security – The isolated nature of VMs tends to give businesses a false sense of security. It is important to remember that virtualization does not automatically mean enhanced defenses against cybersecurity threats such as data traffic monitoring, especially for connected VMs.

Preparing for Virtualization

Now that you know the possible advantage and downsides of virtualization, you may have decided that it’s worth a try. If so, there are some things you can do to assess how much work might need to go into the endeavor.

Some things you can do to prepare can include;

• Carry out an audit of current hardware and software.

• Assess network bandwidth

• Lay out a clear definition of server roles

• Find out the current resource strain on each server

Choosing the Right Hypervisor

Once you have the information, you’ll also need to assess the various solutions available and match your needs. There are many brands of hypervisor available, each with individual characteristics. Not all hypervisors work the same way and support the same things.

For example, Microsoft has a hypervisor called Hyper-V built into specific versions of its OS. However, this hypervisor doesn’t support the creation of macOS VMs. You also need to consider the scale of virtualization that you will need.

Many consumer-grade virtualization software is available for free, but most of them aren’t for use in commercial environments. If you want to deploy VMs for business use, here are some you can consider;

• VMware Workstation

• VMware vSphere

• Azure Virtual Machines

• OpenVZ

• Promox VE

The critical difference between the various VM bars lies in what niche they perform better for, the performance required for the VMs created, and the quality of support from service providers. For example, Microsoft is an industry leader for most locations, but Virtuozzo is a niche player in server virtualization infrastructure.

Final Thoughts

If by now, the thought of virtualization is beginning to daunt you, it could be a good idea just to test things out. You don’t need to do a full implementation to experiment. Simply recreate a small network and use basic virtualization software to experience the process firsthand.

Despite being a rather technical topic, virtualization today isn’t as complex as it used to be. Thanks to the Internet and many prosumers and hobbyists, there is a fantastic amount of information available online.

Hop on some how-to sites, and you can easily learn to deploy and operate your own mini-virtualized environment at any time. One done right, it just takes a few moments of your time.