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General Information
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October 23, 2009
• Vol.31 Issue 26
Page(s) 40 in print issue
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Virtual Savings
Newer Virtual Technologies Benefit Smaller Enterprises
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| Key Points
• Virtualization technologies make for significant cost savings to smaller enterprises.
• A number of supporting applications have helped make virtual technologies even more accessible in recent years.
• Relatively new to the market, virtual desktops can cut the costs of maintaining individual PCs and laptops. | | There’s little doubt virtualization is a hot technology for data centers right now, and it’s expected to continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Although virtualization technologies have much to offer all enterprises in terms of cost savings and resource consolidation, small to midsized enterprises in particular stand to benefit from virtualizing their servers and desktop applications, say virtualization experts.
Virtualization has been gaining traction because it offers the capability to fit more servers and more processing power into a smaller data center footprint, says Cameron Niles, CTO at technology consulting company Syzygy 3 (www.syzygy3.com).
As adoption steps up, newer applications to the market, including desktop virtualization, give enterprises even more access to the cost savings brought about by virtualization, says Nikolaos Makris, CEO at 2X Software (www.2x.com).
Still, the very thing that makes virtualization applications attractive to smaller enterprises may keep their larger counterparts from going virtual, Niles adds.
“Interestingly enough, the SMBs in some cases benefit more from adopting virtual servers,” Niles says. “Fortune 500 companies that have built data centers within the last 10 years have planned for electrical requirements and cooling loads and server density. Virtual machines run hotter and put more of a load on those large data centers than were planned for.”
Small to midsized enterprises—whether they’re looking to virtualize servers or desktops—can turn to virtualization as a solution simply because they have fewer workstations and server requirements than do larger enterprises, Niles adds.
 Business Benefits
The benefits to small enterprises include the following:
Electricity and space savings. Enterprises can run many virtual servers on one physical server, thus consolidating space by running more servers within a small space than previously possible, Makris says. These savings are reflected in reduced power bills.
Also, space can be a premium for small enterprises, and virtualization offers the capability to fit more processing power into a much smaller space than previously possible, Niles adds. “I’m only using the capacity and electrical draw of the one physical server I’m running those virtual servers on, whereas before I’d be running four or five physical servers to accomplish the same tasks,” Niles says.
But space on the server is maximized via virtualization, as well, says Alex Yost, president of IBM’s system and technology group. An average server is less than 20% utilized. Running virtual servers dramatically raises that percentage.
The cost savings can also be seen on the hardware side. Companies need to buy fewer physical servers because they’re more fully exploiting those servers’ capabilities via virtualization, Makris says.
Ready data restoration. The information stored on virtual servers is easily copied between physical servers, making for quick restores and backups, Niles says. “If I have a physical server running a virtual server, I can keep a copy of that virtual server on a second physical server,” Niles says. “Or, if I have a problem with a virtual machine, I can get that virtual machine up and running on another server. I can move virtual machines between physical pieces of hardware to eliminate single points of failure.”
Easier management. Because virtual servers allow for less server sprawl than physical servers, the data center can be more easily managed by allowing IT administrators to keep a closer eye on machine performance, Makris says.
Reduced deployment time. Virtual servers can be up days after getting executive sign-off for the implementation, Yost says. Physical server implementation could—and frequently does—take months.
No More Towers
Servers are no longer the only way for small to midsized enterprises to derive key benefits of taking technology virtual, Niles says.
Within the past few years, enterprises have found that by taking their desktops virtual, they can derive still more savings via virtualization, he says. Of course that doesn’t mean the desktop computers cease to exist. These enterprises are moving to link thin-client desktops to the server, and access the common software found there, rather than running the software on the local personal computer, he adds.
That means the thin client is running a virtual desktop stored on a virtual server, Makris says. “This is a growing trend among companies with heavy road-warrior use, because it gives them a good, less-expensive connectivity solution,” Niles says. In other words, each remote worker needn’t maintain an individual, personal notebook because these thin-client applications work in the field.
Advantages of virtual desktops are akin to those of virtual servers, Makris says. Software management is centralized because the software sits on the server. Security and backup are also easier to manage.
“Security is eased because you need [to] maintain antivirus software only on the server and you can also back up centrally,” he says. “The virtual server creates images you can play back at any time. So you can play back a certain desktop that crashed without having to reinstall all the hardware at the PC level.”
Supporting Players
Of course, the popularity of virtual servers and now of virtual desktops has also spawned a number of products intended to aid virtualization. Software that links a thin-client desktop to all virtual servers, regardless of developer, is relatively new to the market.
Other secondary products include input-output adapters that allow IT administrators to deploy multiple I/O ports on one adapter, Yost says. The typical virtual server installation needs about six Ethernet ports. Adapters help meet those numbers. They also balance and share loads, again simplifying server management, he adds.
Like the servers and the desktops themselves, applications that support virtual technologies continue to evolve at breakneck pace, Yost says. Small to midsized enterprises should expect to see even greater benefits down the line. 
by Jean Thilmany
Virtual Desktops & Servers Cut Costs
Here’s an overview of the ways in which small to midsized enterprises can benefit from virtual servers and desktops:
• Power savings. More virtual servers running on one physical server makes for a decreased server-to-power-used ratio.
• Space savings. By their very nature, virtual servers take up less room than their physical counterparts.
• Easier backup and restoration. Information stored on virtual servers is easily copied.
• Software consolidation. Use of thin-client computers means software can reside on the server, not individual PCs.
• Fewer PCs to maintain. Thin-client computers are capable of accessing software stored on virtual servers. |
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