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What is virtualization, and why it is important to my business?

Over the past couple of years, perhaps the most innovative and far-reaching technology to gain acceptance in corporate computing environments is server virtualization. While there has been significant adoption within enterprise environments, virtualization or VM, has been overlooked by many smaller and midsize organizations.

But what is virtualization? Simply put, it is the concept of running one or more server environments within a single physical server (hardware). In practical terms, a virtual server is purely software made to emulate a hardware environment. This allows you to run several completely isolated servers on a single physical machine. These virtual servers, while physically located on one machine, are completely isolated and operate as distinct systems.

Why is this desirable? First, many applications have difficulties co-existing with other applications running on the same server. Software conflicts and version incompatibilities frequently present challenges running several applications together. Many software vendors prefer (or require) that their applications run isolated from other applications or server roles. By utilizing virtualization, we can provide that isolation while taking full advantage of the capabilities and capacity of modern hardware. Furthermore, as virtual servers are nothing more than a software representation of a physical piece of hardware, moving them from one platform to another is a simple matter of copying a file or files to the new machine.

Imagine moving a server from one hardware platform to another in a matter of a few minutes… Think of what this can do for system availability and recovery. Imagine having a copy of your Active Directory server reside on a single DVD that could be recovered and re-deployed within minutes in the event of a hardware failure. Working on a single server (and application) does not affect other applications. This can greatly improve overall system availability and reliability.

Ever have the need to test a new application or program in an isolated environment? Need to do trial runs and what-if scenarios on database or accounting applications? With virtualization, you can easily do this by using snapshots or un-do disks that at a click of a mouse revert your environment back to the original starting point. In our environment, we use this to do application training with student machines. Mess up the data…. A click of a mouse and you are back to the beginning.

Another interesting application of this technology is the virtualization of legacy environments. Virtualization is not limited to Microsoft Windows platforms; we can virtualize an aging UNIX server to move it off outdated and unsupported hardware to a new state-of-the-art Intel-based server platform. This had been almost impossible up to this point as drivers are frequently not available for the latest hardware. As the Unix system is running in a virtual environment, the underlying hardware is transparent and can coexist with other virtual host servers running Microsoft Windows, for instance.

So what does this look like in a real world scenario? In our Redmond offices we deploy two virtual servers that run virtual servers for Blackberry Services, Live Communications, SharePoint, MAS 200, SQL Server 2000, Remove Active Directory, Citrix, Terminal Services and two test machines - all this on two physical servers. Imagine what your environment might look like.

For more information, call Chris Faist, Integrated Computer Systems Support at 425-284-5410.