Virtualization


I am sure many of you viewing this have heard the term Virtualization. If you have not, then you need to read this page more than anyone else. So what is it, what does it mean and what can it do for your business?

Let me define Virtualization: Virtualization is the use one a hardware device, Server or Workstation, hosting multiple operating systems simultaneously. The Operating Systems have no idea they are running on 1 piece of hardware device or that other operating systems are also running on the same hardware device. These operating systems are called VM's or Virtual Machines and since they are not each a physical machine, they are called VM's. The end user experience is no different and all the magic happens on the back end. This is the perfect use of technology without complicating systems beyond what current end users understand. In fact, with some finesse and skill, the End User will see no difference what so ever in their use of the Virtual Machine; except for increased speed, performance and reliability.

With the amazing speeds of computer systems these days, the low cost of hardware and the ever increasing desire for businesses to decrease Information Technology expenses, eliminate downtime, secure vital data and be increasingly efficient; virtualization is dominating the IT industry as a whole. Several of the large Computer manufactures have done studies that show the the cost of maintaining hardware to be roughly 3x what you paid for the hardware over the course of 3 years. What does that mean in plain English? Let me Demonstrate it for you:

Scenario 1:
Let's say you own a company that has 10 Workstation. You want quality equipment that performs, so you spend about $1,000 per Workstation. On average, you are going to pay roughly $30,000 over 3 years to maintain these computer systems or roughly $833/mo. on average. These systems are susceptible to user error, hardware failure from defect or environmental phenomenon, etc. When a system goes down, it is out of commission for hours to days while your employee that uses it is not making you any money, but is still getting paid. You are not only in pain from the cost of repairs, but from a loss in productivity. Naturally you hit the panic button and are at the mercy of the IT guy that responds. He will either get there is 3 days (most of the IT companies in Southern Utah), or he will arrive within an hour for a premium rate like that of an E.R. visit.

Now, what if i told you there was a better way to address your technology?

Scenario 2:
Lets say we put in a Server that does the work of these 10 Workstations and costs roughly $5,000 (1/2 of what the 10 Workstations would cost you). Your IT Expenses to maintain this Server are 1/2 of the $30,000 in 3 years at ONLY $15,000 or $417.00/mo. on average. An in house person could be trained to do day to day management of this server with an IT backing them up when there is a serious issue; saving you thousands annually. The amount of damage the users can do to the systems is greatly reduced through centralized management, the majority of all issues can be eliminated within minutes (not hours or days), redundant hard drives means fault tolerance when hard drives fail.

Now, 3 years passes and it is time to buy new Workstations. Time to lay out another $10,000 in scenario 1; WAHOOOO.

WAIT! Put your wallet away! In Scenario 2, we upgrade the Server or add 1 new server with an approximate cost of $5,000. WOOT you are saving money again! Can you see how fun this is? I don't know about you, but I LOVE saving money when I am REALLY saving money!! Since Servers have a life span of 3-5 years, your original server is still cranking along like it has been and is either beefier than before or has another Server sharing the workload with it and there to take over if a server crashes!

This is called Load Balancing and Fail Over. If one Server is working harder than the other, workload is seamlessly transferred to the other Server. ON NO! A Server just died or as it called in the IT industry, has gone Belly Up (there is another term that is used, but I will keep this clean); what now? NP you have 2 Servers so the Server still operational instantly and seamlessly takes over the entire workload. Sure things may be slower, but at least you are not totally shut down and 100% of your employees are working still! I cannot stress the need for at least 2 Servers for load balancing and fail over purposes, but 1 modern Server will give better performance than 10 Workstations with no problem.

Want to learn more about Virtualization and help wrap your head around how it all works? VMware™ has awesome resources. Microsoft™ also has some amazing information about Virtualization.

Cheers,

Paul J. Chrisco

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