Server Virtualization in the Scalable Enterprise
Virtualization role in IT infrastructure
Server virtualization can help simplify operations, improve utilization and uptime, and enable cost-effective scaling.
Simplifying operations
Server virtualization effectively hides hardware details from software, allowing the hardware to be truly interchangeable without affecting the software. Virtualization can help simplify operations by doing the following:
- Allowing workload portability across multiple servers, which includes the ability to “rehost” software (including legacy operating systems that are no longer supported)
- Streamlining application development and platform certification by certifying on a common virtual interface rather than multiple implementations of physical hardware
- Encapsulating complex configurations into a file that is easily replicated and provisioned
Improving utilization and uptime
Server virtualization can help organizations make optimal use of existing resources. A single physical server with multiple VMs can host several workloads that, without virtualization, would require multiple physical servers. Additionally, because workloads can be relocated or replicated easily in a virtualized environment, administrators can move them when performing maintenance without affecting service levels and can quickly provision new servers as needed. Virtualization can help improve utilization and uptime by doing the following:
- Enabling safe resource sharing on industry-standard servers, so that if one VM fails, the other VMs on the physical server are not affected
- Providing the ability to migrate workloads dynamically from one physical server to another, so that workload service-level agreements can automatically match demand with capacity and system maintenance can be performed without disrupting enterprise services
- Empowering disaster recovery operations by restoring lost services regardless of the target physical platforms providing the services
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