A Contributed Article from David Malmborg, Dell

Virtualization has become a large component of business ownership and while many companies use virtualization, the benefits and areas it impacts are often overlooked or unknown. This list of five things to know about virtualization may help you better communicate the benefits of the technology:

Green Computing

One area of interest when it comes to virtualization is the immense effect it has on energy consumption. Businesses all over the world have begun to change over to virtualization technologies due to its eco-friendly and low cost energy usage. Often paired with data centers, virtualization consolidates hardware and software on energy efficient machines allowing for more physical space and adding eco-friendly resources to companies. It was estimated in 2006 that 90% of companies using virtualization experienced reduced server space and cost as well as lower energy bills. Now, in 2012, the eco-friendliness of virtualization has expanded even further and many companies are seeing the need to become "green" and cut overhead costs by making the smart decision to use virtualization. Many companies who've made the transition to virtualization have reported reduced energy costs and consumption by 80%.

Virtualization's Role in Business Agility

Because virtualization is a concept that applies to many pieces of a business IT model, it is considered very versatile. Many companies and even universities use virtualization to fit their numerous computer needs. To fill all these needs in one solid location, three leaders in the IT world collaborated in introducing a virtual infrastructure that would cater to the needs of businesses through virtualization. This can be done through simple cloud transitions on this system that they named the Vblock. Gerry McCartney, the CIO of Purdue University had this to say about Purdue's use of virtualization systems, "Purdue is a research university and the majority of our IT needs are spent on high-performance computing, which requires strong computing, massive amounts of storage, and high-speed networking fabric. The Vblock solution offers these elements in a single pre-tested, pre-integrated solution which will be easier to deploy."

The Vblock was created to provide greater flexibility and lower costs through virtualization of data centers for business models. "Customers are increasingly looking to virtualization to dramatically improve the performance and flexibility of their existing IT systems," said Paul Maritz, president and CEO of VMware. These virtualizations add processing power when needed and better allocation of storage for companies within the cloud. With the technology of the Vblock and virtualization, it is a smart and flexible choice for businesses. To learn more about this option visit dell.com.

Virtualization also has great scalability. This means that these systems can easily handle a growing amount of work without constant updating and upgrading from business owners, therefore providing an agile business product. Scalability, flexibility and agility of virtualization also allows for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) across networks, smart phones, etc.

Management

Virtualization increases the speed and ease of applications while lowering the complexities of IT management, but because of this versatility of virtualization, it does still require management to insure things always run smoothly. In an article found on the Dell blog, written in July of 2012, they predicted that the future of virtualization would include integrated VDI monitoring which would allow for real time monitoring and assist in environment capacity planning. This monitoring develops into management and offers solutions for any problems that may arise over the virtualization systems.

Increased Security

Virtualization allows for users to set up an isolated environment which adds to security. Instead of running all applications to one operating system, applications can be isolated should they pose a security risk. Because of VDI monitoring, at risk or compromised applications can be detected and analyzed faster across a virtualization program.

Increased Availability and Recovery

Part of the business agility offered by virtualization is the increased availability among users. Programs and applications from work can be accessed from almost anywhere including smart phones. It is through these virtual apps that backing up virtual items is much easier and also can be recovered quicker than with non virtual files. This is done by saving systems on the cloud as opposed to an actual in-house computer.

Smarter Business

The benefits and uses of virtualization are endless and effective for smarter business. Use this list to help communicate the value of virtualization to your organization.

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