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Virtualization: A Small Business Perspective

Virtualization: A Small Business Perspective

Virtualization means splitting up a single physical computer into several "virtual" computers. Server virtualization is the most common, and involves splitting up a single physical server into several virtual servers. In desktop virtualization, a central server is divided up into multiple virtual desktop computers that are accessed remotely.

MAIN PROS OF VIRTUALIZATION
  • Savings on hardware, energy usage, management and co-location
  • Faster and cheaper backup and disaster recovery. For small businesses, this is probably the most significant benefit.
  • Ability to set up test computers without disrupting live ones
MAIN CONS OF VIRTUALIZATION
  • Single point of failure. No virtualized system should be put in place without proper contingency planning.
  • Higher costs for individual servers, higher bandwidth costs.
  • Because of economies of scale, the hardware, energy and other savings that make virtualization so compelling for large organizations may not materialize for small and medium businesses.
DOES VIRTUALIZATION MAKE SENSE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES?

Yes, no, and maybe - but it's well worth considering, if only for the huge benefits in backup and disaster recovery.
  • Expert opinion is divided as to whether virtualization can pay for itself in environments with fewer than 20 servers.
  • The biggest benefits are faster and cheaper backup and disaster recovery, scalability and greater technical potential and flexibility.
  • Benefits are most likely to be in TCO rather than direct, immediate savings in, say, hardware and energy costs.
Virtualization will move different costs in different directions. In a typical small business with fewer than 20 servers:
  • Backup and disaster recovery costs will go down, as will power and cooling costs (if they were high in the first place).
  • Co-location costs will go down if you are reducing the number of hosted servers.
  • Hardware and IT support costs will stay the same or go down.
  • Licensing and bandwidth costs will stay the same or go up.





Virtualization A Small Business Perspective - To learn more about this author, visit Linda Jacobson's Website.

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Linda Jacobson
(Visit Linda's Website) Linda Jacobson is Partner and General Manager at Nash Networks Inc. We provide computer support and managed IT services to businesses in Toronto and the GTA. Our clients are usually from 5-50 employees and often have complex IT needs and low tolerance for downtime. We manage several mixed Windows, Mac and/or Linux or UNIX networks. We are producing a series of articles in 2009 to educate business owners about IT, with a focus on costs, productivity, and cost-effectiveness. The series is titled, "Making every IT dollar count!"

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