Why virtualize?

By soinkleined In Virtualization

The concept of installing an operating system onto a server is very easy to understand, especially for those of us with years of systems administration experience.  Tracing issues and analyzing hardware and infrastructure components is facilitated by the direct interaction of the OS and kernel with the hardware.

Why would I want a layer between my OS and my server? Why virtualize?

Many advantages include the following:

• Reduce the overall physical footprint in the data center – heat, power and administration overhead reductions through consolidation
• Drive up overall utilization by matching complimentary workloads and capacity requirements, i.e. make better use of infrastructure
• Increase availability – workload mobility (cluster, VMotion, LPAR and LDOM live migration, etc.)
• More easily meet changing workload requirements – capacity on demand through dynamic resource (re)allocation
• Rapid provisioning of environments
• Increase the longevity of a system or application by running legacy operating systems and applications on more modern, physical hardware
• Allow for the portability of environments

Companies employ virtualization technology today, but very few leverage the benefits mentioned above.  Are you virtualizing your infrastructure appropriately?

If you need help with your virtualization strategy, get in touch.