Virtualization 101 for small business and enterprise

Virtualization is a new and emerging technology that is rapidly growing, taking industry by
storm. In business, virtualization has become a new buzz word, but not many decision-makers
actually understand what it is. In today’s fiercely competitive world, it is crucial for decisionmakers
to learn more about virtualization to see if it can give their organizations leverage over
their competition. Not only that, virtualization can save businesses of all sizes a lot of money. Summed up in one sentence, virtualization is an information technology (IT) logistics strategy
that can save businesses time and money. Today, most IT data centers use one machine for one
server (e.g. one machine to serve e-mail, one for data, one for the website, etc.), causing server
sprawl. Eventually businesses run out of room for new machines, leaving them stuck in a bad
position. With virtualization, each server’s programs, files, and processes are merged into one
file (an image), and is then placed among other images on one machine. Consolidation of IT
resources improves server utilization and consequently increases efficiency, lowers the
electricity bill, and reduces physical footprint. It also makes deploying new servers cheap. A
different approach to virtualization is making multiple physical resources appear as one physical
resource, simplifying data-center operations and network administration through one
consolidated virtual environment.
The advantages of virtualization are almost infinite, but the main points are business continuity,
saving money through outsourcing data-processing (cloud computing), and preserving legacy
applications. The disadvantages are possible security problems, an initial investment up-front,
and uncertainty about the roll-out process (e.g. bugs that take time to work out).