Benefits of virtualization

Article sponsored by IBM and Intel

From an enterprise point of view, the virtualization of processes is a good way of rationalizing spending while improving performance in the sense that staff members can focus more energy on core activities instead of maintaining the existing computing system.

Where an enterprise previously had to maintain knowledgeable people who could handle the computing systems, each with their own specifications and modules which use energy, virtualization allows you to have an architecture which is a lot more flexible, allowing it to be easily adapted to the businesses current needs.

This implies that the possibilities are more reactive while being adapted in a short delay if markets situations change. By adapting the solution to your needs without having to know all of the infrastructure required, this is an excellent way of reducing costs without having to worry about whether the purchased hardware will be over scoped – resulting in wasted resources, or under scoped which will require new investment - making the overall operation expensive.

The virtualisation of systems can make the whole installation more robust by duplicating virtual servers on a new site in the event of problems (disaster recovery, technical problems) or in the event capacity has to be transferred.

A new way of thinking about the network and IT services
It can also allow for resource rationalization, as less hardware is required, reducing the functional costs and energy use while offering flexible architecture which can allow the company to improve the way they function, while optimizing solutions deployment.

As previously seen, data centres are constantly evolving so as to better adapt to certain environmental constraints, with virtualization creating the perfect circle of less energy use and optimal performance, helping to guarantee that the enterprise works more efficiently.

Finally, virtualization has opened the way to new organization models like cloud computing (new in the sense that it is now being deployed on very large scales) allowing services to be easily deployed on the condition that a solid monitoring system has been implemented in the background.

Virtualisation and cloud computing assures that economies of scale and IT services can be deployed quickly, while having a high quality of service (at least theoretically) assuring that everyone has optimal return on their investment while conquering new markets.