It’s a safe bet your business is always looking for ways to reduce waste. One place you might not yet have looked? Virtualization of your information technology. Choosing to virtualize servers offers several business benefits. Here are the top five.
Let’s first clarify what we mean by virtualization. We’re not talking about a Ready Player One-like takeover of your business. Employees aren’t donning VR headsets to work in an all-encompassing virtual universe.
Instead, we’re referring to a virtualization of servers. The work of multiple physical servers are handled on a single server or a cloud-based environment. Say you have three physical servers: one handles mail, another handles internet and routing, and the third proprietary, business applications. Each of these dedicated servers may not be at full capacity, but you need all three.
With virtualization, the workloads are no longer tied to specific hardware. Software monitors and allocates IT resources. This means many things can happen at once on the same machines. That’s where we start seeing the benefits this article explores.
#1 Greater Efficiency
With virtualization you can make better use of your server capabilities. Computer hardware running a single operating system or application underutilizes your IT. Organizations running more than one virtual system on a server take full advantage of their tech.
#2 Lower Costs
Virtualizing a server helps reduce spending. Housing many applications on one server, a business better meets storage and processing demands. This can cut down on hardware expenditure.
The business also isn’t paying to power machines it isn’t using fully. Plus, cutting back on hardware in the physical environment can reduce cooling demands. This saves on energy bills while helping the business’s corporate social responsibility goals.
Reclaiming the space used for physical servers, the business can also increase profit generation.
#3 Improved Responsiveness
Virtualization offers greater operational flexibility. A business can respond to market changes with faster dynamic resource management. With a virtual server, you can backup operating systems and applications efficiently. Rather than dealing with hours of downtime, a virtual environment is deployed in minutes. Moving, copying, or saving data from virtualized machines can be point-and-click simple.
#4 Enhanced Disaster Recovery
A severe weather event or malware attack could take a physical server out of commission. The business struggles to install its backup (if it has one) on a new server. With a virtualized server, it’s much simpler to replicate that information.
It’s also easier to do full backups with server virtualization. A business is more likely to have the latest, most up-to-date data available in the event of a disaster.
#5 Reduced Need for Repairs and Support
Owning physical servers means constant monitoring and maintenance demands. Reducing the need for physical hardware can cut back on repairs and demand for support. With fewer servers and related hardware, valuable IT experts can focus on challenging, rewarding work. That helps with employee morale and retention, too!
Gartner (a research and advisory company) has estimated that businesses that virtualize save up to 50% compared to those relying on physical resources. That virtualized business is also increasing their speed and security. Save the staggering costs of downtime, and improve IT productivity with server virtualization.
Ready for virtualization? We can set up the right virtualization solution for your business. Reach out to us today at (850) 659-6649.
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