Virtualisation
Multiple virtual machines on one operating system
In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources such as servers, disk space, applications etc. It is a collection of technologies and techniques that offer great deal of flexibility for businesses users. Using it, a single physical server can be configured to appear separate servers, even a different physical system or present a logical façade for a number of separate servers. There is growing interest in the IT and business world as it promises to deal with many current issues: growing volumes of data, increasing demands on that data and rising energy costs.
The benefits are manifold including:-
- Virtualisation enables hardware to run multiple virtual machines
- Allows offers ability to run different operating systems on one server
- Increase flexibility, availability and speed of deployment of computing resources
- Reduce hardware requirements
- Improved efficiency
Virtualisation is already on many chief information officers' to-do lists. The technology is moving into the mainstream, according to analyst house Quocirca, and becoming a standard part of the data-centre environment. Virtualisation has also been extended to specific system resources, such as storage volumes, name spaces, and network resources. There are three areas of IT where Virtualisation is making inroads, network virtualization, storage virtualization and server virtualization:
- Network
Network virtualisation is a method of combining the available resources in a network by splitting up the available bandwidth into channels, each of which is independent.
- Storage
Storage virtualisation is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is commonly used in storage area networks (SANs).
- Server
Server virtualisation is the masking of server resources (including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems) from server users.
There are a large number of solutions including software from many leading companies including :-
- VMware ESX Server
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
- IBM xSeries virtualization and management
- HP StorageWorks
Contact MailSure to see how we can fulfill your virtualisation needs.