Virtualize for Efficiency, Higher Availability & Lower Costs
Virtualization is the single most effective way to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency and agility—not just for large enterprises, but for small and midsize businesses too. VMware virtualization lets you:
- Run multiple operating systems and applications on a single server.
- Consolidate hardware to get vastly higher productivity from fewer servers.
- Save 50 percent or more on overall IT costs.
- Speed up and simplify IT management, maintenance, and the deployment of new applications.
What is Virtualization?
Virtualization addresses IT’s most pressing challenge: the infrastructure sprawl that compels IT departments to channel 70 percent of their budget into maintenance, leaving scant resources for business-building innovation.
The difficulty stems from the architecture of today’s x86 servers: they’re designed to run just one operating system and application at a time. As a result, even small data centers have to deploy many servers, each operating at just 5 to 15 percent of capacity—highly inefficient by any standard.
Virtualization software solves the problem by enabling several operating systems and applications to run on one physical server or “host.” Each self-contained virtual machine (VM) is isolated from the others, and uses as much of the host’s computing resources as it requires.
The Benefits of Server Virtualization
The benefits of virtualization are nothing short of dramatic.
- Up to 80 percent greater utilization of every server.
- Reductions in hardware requirements by a ratio of 10:1 or better.
- Capital and operations expenses cut by half, with annual savings of more than $1,500 for each server virtualized.
- Robust, affordable high availability.
Virtualizing Networking Services
With software-defined networking, virtualization principles are applied to network resources, abstracting, pooling and automating them to transcend the limitations of rigid physical architectures. Network services are assigned to each application and remain with it, elastically adapting to its changing requirements. Software-defined networking has many benefits.
- Simplified provisioning
- Enhanced scalability
- Simplified management
- Lower operating costs
Deploying Security in a Virtualized Environment
Security can also be delivered as an efficient, software-defined service—decoupled from physical devices, aggregated, and applied precisely where needed without hardware upgrades. Virtual workloads can be moved and scaled free from security constraints and the need for specialized appliances. Services include:
- Integrated fire walling
- Optimized gateway services
- Open architecture