Olivia Devina Sutedjo
Why Virtualization = Benefit
In today’s complex IT environments, server virtualization simply makes sense. Redundant server hardware can rapidly fill enterprise datacenters to capacity; each new purchase drives up power and cooling costs even as it saps the bottom line. Dividing physical servers into virtual servers is one way to restore sanity and keep IT expenditures under control.
In fact, today’s datacenter managers have a dizzying array of
virtualization solutions to choose from. Some are proprietary, others are open source. For the most part, each will be based on one of three fundamental technologies; which one
will produce the best results depends on the specific workloads to be virtualized and their operational priorities.
Despite rumors to the contrary, virtualization is not just for the datacenter. From the most complex workstation applications to the simplest DLLs, virtualization is leaving an indelible mark on client computing.
A good example of this is application virtualization, a label applied to products that insulate running programs from the underlying desktop. The idea behind
application virtualization is to eliminate many of the support-draining configuration problems that plague conventional desktop implementations. These products virtualize the
interaction between a given program and supporting OS resources, like the file system and, in the case of Windows, the system registry database. All these products isolate
applications from the OS image, but the approaches are quite varied.
With virtualization, you can dynamically fire up and take down virtual servers (also known as virtual machines), each of which basically fools an operating system (and any
applications that run on top of it) into thinking the virtual machine is actual hardware. Set up and manage virtual machines quickly and transition them to full use in a
fraction of the time it takes to set up physical servers. Minimize new hardware purchases by hosting several virtual servers on one physical server. Manage disaster recovery
sites using fewer servers than are used at your primary site. And consolidate clients on high capacity servers, reducing the cost to maintain and manage them.