Virtualisation
Server Virtualisation
Key virtualisation services offered by SR Networks:
- Pre-virtualisation inspection and report on current setup
- Virtualisation of existing physical servers
- Installation and setup of Hypervisor Server
- Load-balancing of virtual machines to reduce hardware bottlenecks
- Backup scheme design and deployment
- Training for in-house IT staff
- Documentation of virtual system for Disaster Recovery planning
Business benefits of Server Virtualisation
- Consolidation of physical servers, reducing power and cooling needs
- Reduce capital and management costs by having less hardware to support
- Increase availability of resources through reduction in downtime
- Deliver resources and applications in an efficient and scalable way
- Faster disaster response time – easily move virtual servers between physical machines
Virtualisation is the process of turning a physical server into a single file that is then run by a server called a Hypervisor. Traditional servers typically consist of 1 physical server which then has an operating system installed on it. This model is ok for one server but has a number of drawbacks. Firstly if a physical part of the server breaks and a new server has to be purchased, the server will have to be reinstalled. Even if you have all the backups, it can easily take a week or more to fully recover. The cost to the business in this case is immense. Virtualisation means that the time from a replacement server arriving onsite to being fully operational is approximately 2-4 hours. The second drawback is scalability. Often by the time a server is 2-3 years old, the businesses needs have changed and the server is having to store more files and do much more work. Eventually it will need to be upgraded. Whilever the server can support upgrades, this is ok. But eventually a fundamental limit will be reached on what can be upgraded. As this stage the entire server is usually replaced, again this may take a week or so to complete fully. Virtualisation allows continuous and limitless upgrades to the physical hardware since in the worst case scenario, the entire physical server can be replaced in a couple of hours.
PC virtualisation
Business benefits of PC virtualisation
- Allocate resources to users on a needs basis
- Reduce capital and management costs by having less hardware to support
- simpler provisioning of new desktops
- reduced downtime in the event of server or client hardware-failures
- lower cost of deploying new applications
- desktop image-management capabilities
- longer refresh cycle for client desktop infrastructure
PC virtualisation, Desktop Virtualisation sometimes referred to as virtual desktop interface (VDI) is the process of virtualising client PCs. Many companies use Terminal Server (now called Remote Desktop Services) to provide a remote desktop for their users. But this can be very expensive in terms of licenses. The big benefit of PC virtualisation is that you can virtualise your old PCs and then run these from the server. This allows you to extend the life of the PC and also reduce downtime if the physical PC has a fault.
