Virtualization isn’t a new concept — it’s been around for decades — but it’s never been more relevant for organizations looking to do more with less. There are many benefits of virtualization for business but before exploring them it’s critical to understand why it’s seen as an option to optimize IT compared to simply buying more equipment and software.
First, what do we mean by virtualization? Virtualization is the process of creating multiple simulated environments from a single, physical hardware system. Each of these ‘environments’ is separate and secure, and referred to as a virtual machine. Each virtual machine operates as if it were its own computer, with its own specs for storage, processing power, and memory available on the physical hardware.
The last key for virtualization is the use of a hypervisor — the software layer that handles the interactions between the hardware and the associated virtual machines. Think of the hypervisor as the teacher in a room full of students; it allocates resources and makes sure each of the virtual machines operates as it should while sharing the same hardware with the other environments. It also protects. A hypervisor shields other machines in a virtual environment from errors or crashes that affect one virtual machine.
To sum it all up, virtualization allows you to take one piece of machinery and make it act like multiple pieces, saving you the cost of more hardware and equipment. This opens up many advantages for businesses, particularly those that may be resource-constrained. Let’s examine those benefits in more detail.
Take on IT with Confidence: Arnet Technologies eliminates worries surrounding IT management and support, cybersecurity, compliance, and more. Connect with us today for a free consultation.
Taking Stock of the Benefits of Virtualization for Business
Virtualization offers substantial benefits for nearly any business and has become a core strategy for improving an organization’s IT efficiency. By moving away from a ‘one server, one application’ model, businesses are able to consolidate IT infrastructure, enhance flexibility and improve the working experience for their employees.
Reduce Costs
One of the biggest benefits for businesses employing virtualization is lowering infrastructure costs. By consolidating excess servers and desktop hardware, businesses have fewer capital expenditures to account for every month. With fewer hardware pieces to maintain, the maintenance and energy costs to care for those assets will drop. Eliminating server sprawl means saving valuable floor space as well.
Improved Productivity & Continuity
With virtualization, IT teams won’t have to order and set up new servers for every new application meaning they’ll be able to get up and running more quickly. With less hardware, there will be fewer technical issues, leaving more time to focus on other higher-value projects like customer service or developing new offerings. With less physical hardware to worry about, your IT department spends less time maintaining physical machines.
In addition, virtualization allows faster and easier backup and recovery of key applications, data, and workloads. In the event of a disaster, you’re better equipped to cost-effectively switch to a secondary IT site or backup state and restore critical business operations. Adding such resiliency has been typically out of reach for most small businesses.
Better Responsiveness & Availability
Virtual environments are much easier to maintain than physical environments and allow all virtual machines to be configured, monitored, and updated from a single piece of hardware. This means less time is spent on security updates, installing new software, and deploying patches. You can also easily set up redundant virtualized environments with exceptionally high availability. By automatically monitoring the status of each virtual machine, you can rapidly switch to a backup in the event of an outage and continue working from the last working state.
By nature, virtual environments are easily scalable. You can deploy many instances of the same virtual machine to adapt to a heavy workload for one particular department for example. A consolidated and simplified IT environment adds adaptability when you need it to continuously support growth.
Take on Telephony with Teams: Using Microsoft Teams as a phone system makes a lot of sense for small businesses. Examine the benefits of switching here.
We Power Your Productivity
For more than a decade, Arnet Technologies has delivered premier managed IT services to businesses across Ohio. We remove the pain points from dealing with IT, allowing you to focus on what moves the needle for your business. We tackle every aspect of managed IT, from consulting to the cloud to cybersecurity and more, to give your business the confidence to trust in its technology environment.
We’re a proud industry partner with VMware, and provide their industry-leading products — such as vSphere and vSAN — as part of our VMware consulting services for virtualization. Our highly trained consultants can design, implement, and support your VMware infrastructure in a way that aligns with your company’s goals.
All of our offerings are backed with white-glove customer service. Every client receives an Account Manager to offer insight and guide your next steps and while we may set up virtual environments, we are also committed to being onsite when you need us. Most importantly, we will acknowledge and confirm all service tickets within 12 minutes.
Ready to reap the benefits of virtualization for business? Connect with our team today to learn how Arnet Technologies helps turn your technology into an asset.
