Virtualization makes computer hardware appear more capable than it is. To choose the best strategy, consider the number of servers, budget, and resource control. Virtualization can replace many servers with a few large ones, or use cloud computing for low cost but less control. Cloud computing may become robust enough for mission-critical applications, but it’s important to keep potential problems in mind.
The central idea behind virtualization is to make computer hardware appear to have greater capabilities than it actually has. There are many ways to do this, so you need to keep a few things in mind when deciding on the best virtualization strategy for your needs. To choose the best strategy, consider whether your computer network has experienced a sudden increase in the number of servers it uses, how much money is available to spend on virtualization, and how much control you need over resources.
Virtualization in the field of computers has been around for a long time. Early mainframes used paging techniques to virtualize storage, which is main memory. Disk or auxiliary storage has been virtualized through the use of Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Networked Attached Storage (NAS). Virtualization has been extended to include computers and network resources. From one large virtualization server, you can make many other servers running different operating systems. You can allocate a part of the available network and all this is done through virtualization software.
A virtualization strategy might consist of replacing many discrete servers, each running an operating system and one or a few applications, with a few large virtualization servers. The beauty of this virtualization strategy comes in saving data center space and other resource overheads such as power, network outages, and air conditioning. This virtualization strategy is best for organizations that have experienced server sprawl during growth spurts and other company acquisitions.
Another virtualization strategy involves the use of cloud computing. Cloud computing is when a large data center, such as an online business, offers virtualization servers for rent. For a monthly fee, the customer can carve out multiple servers with different capacities, storage to support databases and other applications, and a portion of the network bandwidth.
The advantage of this virtualization strategy is the low cost, because only the resources needed to support the applications are billed. The downside is that your organization won’t have full control over the resources. This virtualization strategy means relying on another company or organization to keep the virtual machines running all the time. As a result, there has been a trend to keep mission-critical internal and back-office applications in the cloud. Notable exceptions to this virtualization strategy are web applications that don’t require absolute availability.
Over time, cloud computing may become robust enough to support mission-critical applications. An old adage in computing, however, is that what can go wrong will go wrong, and at the most inopportune times. The best virtualization strategy will keep these timeless principles in mind.
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