When you think of a data center, what comes to mind? If you are picturing a vast room full of noisy, bulky servers, wires, and other convoluted pieces of technology, then you are missing an important point.
In this day and age, financially savvy businesses are increasingly swapping those cumbersome, old-fashioned data centers for virtual ones.
From cloud technologies to artificial intelligence and now virtual data centers, the digitalization of the workplace is an ever-growing phenomenon that shows no sign of slowing down.
To find out exactly what is a virtual data center and why they are so effective at supporting your business, read on.
Virtual Data Center: A Definition
First of all, let’s look at what is a virtual data center. Sometimes also called a software-defined data center (SDDC), a virtual data center essentially consists of virtualized servers, networks, and storage clusters that replace traditional (read: physical) ones.
By removing physical hardware from your standard data center, you can enjoy a range of benefits, including:
- Lower energy costs
- Faster provisioning of resources
- Better system utilization
- Increased productivity
- Higher compliance and security
- More flexible scalability
- Increased data mobility
By integrating all the different layers of virtualization – namely, computing, servers, networking, and storage – a virtual data center helps build a unified and centralized framework to deliver an IT-as-a-service model.
Your virtual data center helps you run all your business core operations, including app testing (for this, you can try Rainforest alternatives like Global App Testing), customer service, financial processes, and more.
How a Virtual Data Center Supports Your Data
There are several different ways in which a virtual data center can help you support your company’s data. In this section, we will explore the top three.
1. Heightened Data Compliance and Security
Ensuring that your business data is always kept safe as well as in full compliance with any industry regulations (which can become particularly crucial if you operate in a highly-regulated industry, like healthcare or banking) is a must.
Running a virtual data center allows you to achieve just that. By abstracting VMs from the underlying hardware, you can ensure that all the data within the virtual data center is safe and secure at all times.
This, in turn, enables you to run critical operations and applications with the peace of mind that the data you are using will not be compromised.
2. Lightning-Speed Disaster Recovery
If you have ever experienced a disaster wreaking havoc in your traditional data center, you will certainly agree that ensuring that a similar thing never happens again is a priority.
With a virtual data center, even the most unexpected outage or failure won’t ever cause the same disruptions that you had to deal with when your physical servers went down.
This is because your IT teams will simply be able to provision and deploy new virtual machines rapidly and safely, enabling them to replicate what the affected machines were used for.
How long does this take, you might wonder? A mere few minutes compared to the hours or days it took your IT team to sort out even a minor issue with your physical data center.
3. Safe and Fast Remote Data Access
Whether you are now running a fully remote business or offering a hybrid work model, one of your priorities is that all employees logging into your systems from different locations can access the data they need in a rapidly and securely.
Once again, this is something that you can achieve with a virtual data center. Thanks to its solid centralization, you can get full visibility and control over your business, which makes it simple to deliver data and applications to your remote staff.
The Takeaway
Now you’re armed with the knowledge of what is a data center and the advantages they offer. Virtual data centers are the digital-age response to traditional ones. They feature virtualized computing components, such as servers, storage, and networking, and they can generate a wealth of benefits, including energy savings, higher productivity, and increased scalability.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Stead – Content Marketing, Global App Testing
Adam Stead is a Content Marketer at Global App Testing, mobile app deployment and best-in-class software testing company that has helped top apps including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Craigslist deliver high-quality software in markets across the world. Adam has 10 years of experience in editing, content creation and digital marketing within the tech section, with a wealth of Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, Project Management, Podcasting and Graphic Design skills. You can find him on LinkedIn.
