If you are associated with Information Technology or are pursuing a future in IT, then you have heard of the term "
Virtualization".
Virtualization technology uses
hypervisor technology to allow multiple operating systems to coexist on a single physical server.
Instead of investing in multiple physical servers that each will be will be
responsible for one operating system and providing services for one or a few applications, you can now invest in one large scale server that will be responsible for hosting multiple operating systems and line of business applications.
With
Virtualization, you can host
multiple operating systems and associated applications on one server. This type of configuration provides greater
scalability, cost savings and increased
availability. Example, when faced will having to install a
messaging system (Exchange), database solution (
SQL) and Collaboration solution (
Sharepoint), you will have to budget for either one large server for installation of all products or multiple servers to distribute the various solutions.
However, what if additional disk space needs to be added for Exchange services, or
maintenance needs to be performed? If Exchange is installed on the same physical server as
Sharepoint, you will have to schedule down time to perform the operation, which will also cause
Sharepoint to be unavailable during the disk upgrade. Or worse, the
Exchange server is critically low on
diskspace during normal business hours ? This will affect the performance and operation of
Sharepoint.
By using
Virtualization technology, additional
diskspace can be added for the Exchange server services dynamically without having to "shutdown" the server or
any type of user disruption. This also applies to adding additional resources such as Memory and Processor.
There are also solutions that will assist you to transform physical servers to virtual servers. By using virtual technology, better allocation of resources, tighter security, and lower
TCO has made this solution a must for businesses of ALL sizes.
Labels: hypervisor, virtual, virtualization
