Why Virtualization Tools can Optimize IT Operations
Wondering how virtualization might benefit your IT department? Learn about the ways virtualization tools can increase operational efficiency and reduce costs.
Virtualization solutions can optimize IT operational efficiency by reducing the possibility of downtime and improving user experience. Several advantages come with the implementation of virtualization. These advantages include improved disaster recovery, enhanced security, lengthened lifespans of software and hardware, and more seamless cloud migrations.
Microsoft Azure recently expanded the capabilities of its platform to include several cloud-based tools and virtualized support to shift the burden of graphic-intensive workloads and applications.
The additions to Azure’s platform are targeted towards media and entertainment companies that provide end-users with streaming content.
Microsoft Azure is a prime example of how virtualization and cloud-based tools can help organizations deliver more to the end-user, create a better experience, and optimize operational capacity.
Benefits of Virtualization
The benefits of virtualization have enticed enterprise-scale IT operations for many years. Limited space, staff, and funding for equipment can make virtualization an attractive if not necessary solution.
Organizations can use virtualization to combine or pool several different servers to create redundancy. That redundancy reduces the risk of systems of being unavailable or going offline. If one of the servers has a problem or needs to be taken offline, end users can still access resources since the remaining servers are still in operation.
Microsoft Azure’s new capabilities have doubled the number of virtual CPUs available, creating more redundancy and mitigating the possibility of downtime.
Improved disaster recovery is an additional benefit of virtualization. Backups created by the IT support team can be used on a wider variety of system configurations.
Without virtualization, a created backup can usually only be used to restore a system with the same hardware configuration. By creating a single backup, virtualization tools reduce the amount of time and support an organization’s IT staff have to devote to system restoration.
Microsoft Azure now includes enhanced data storage and caching capabilities that can be scaled through wide area networks (WANs).
Virtualization can provide enhanced security by placing applications into separate locations, reducing the risk of malware infections spreading.
Each application that is stored in a virtual environment has minimal access to hardware resources and storage. If malware does infect one of the applications in a virtual environment, the likelihood of the infection spreading to other system components is reduced.
Virtualization also makes it easier to isolate and get rid of malware that infects a single application. Less time is also spent investigating and documenting the cause of the infection. Increased control and management of application-based content are one of the new benefits of Microsoft Azure’s recent improvements.
The tools that virtualization solutions provide can help outdated or legacy software applications run longer. Virtualization also helps hardware run longer and reduces the need to acquire excess hardware. For instances, some applications become outdated due to new versions of operating systems that are not compatible.
Virtualization can mimic an operating system that is either no longer supported or on its way out. The current version of the application can continue to be used until the developer either release a patch to resolve the compatibility problem or comes out with a new version.
Individual client machines can be configured with only the hardware requirements necessary to run the virtual environment, shifting the bulk of the hardware needs to a single server or group of servers. This not only reduces costs but increases longevity.
Virtual solutions, like Microsoft Azure, can deliver more processing capabilities over a localized network or the internet. More content and increased workloads can be processed without negatively impacting the user’s ability to access system resources. A combination of increased capacity and reduced costs make virtualization an efficient method of optimizing any IT department‘s operations.