Adaptability is one of those qualities that every success
company possesses, an ability to adjust the way they operate their
business to better fit with the times. These companies are able to
recognize that trying to move forward while implementing an outdated
method of managing their business is a losing battle that will
ultimately leave them behind their competition. Instead of resisting
change these successful companies embrace it, putting them at the
forefront of their industry and ensuring their customers and clients
that they are actively pursuing improvements which will translate into
stronger relationships.
Sometimes these transitions into change can produce incredible benefits
for a company, nothing less than revolutionizing their business as it
improves efficiency, productivity, resource management, innovation,
development, and cuts costs. That may sound like a lot but it’s really
just the tip of the iceberg when a company sheds their archaic multiple
server environment and integrates a virtualization infrastructure into
their business operations.
Virtualization platforms have become one of the most effective ways for a
business to not only survive the difficult economic climate that exists
today but actually thrive. The reason this is true is because it can
dramatically reduce unnecessary costs, eliminate waste, encourage
efficiency and productivity, and free up IT admins to do what they do
best- concentrate on innovative ways to improve and develop the business
of the company.
These benefits are simply not possible with a multiple server
environment that demands constant attention from IT admins. In these
multiple server environments information is spread across a number of
servers, servers that host a single operating system or application.
This distribution of information across different machines not only
makes it more difficult for IT admins to maintain or troubleshoot
issues; it also wastes a considerable amount of money. Because these
servers are hosting just a single operating system or application they
are utilizing a fraction of their storage capacity, leaving free space
that goes unused. On top of that, keeping those servers running is an
expensive practice in and of itself.
At one time the multiple server approach to managing information was
seen as the most effective way to secure and protect data. If something
were to go wrong with one application or an operating system then it
wouldn’t affect the others because they were on different servers. While
the intentions of securing and protecting the integrity of information
were necessary it came at a significant cost as most IT admins found
themselves spending more than half their time just maintaining these
multiple machines, leaving the little time to do anything else.
Essentially these IT departments were spending their day running on a
treadmill and by the end of the day they were tired and still in the
same place.
The advancement of virtualization platforms has changed the landscape
and made it possible for IT admins to quickly carry out the basic tasks
like updates, backup, archiving and recovery, tasks that at one time
encompassed most of their day, freeing them up for more valuable
projects. What virtualization allows a company to do is consolidate all
of their information onto one physical computer, meaning their operating
systems, applications, etc., and this information can then be accessed
by virtual machines which share the resources of that physical computer.
By consolidating all of the information onto one physical computer a
company immediately eliminates the costs of managing multiple servers as
well as eliminates the wasted hours spent on maintaining those servers.
The fear that if everything is placed on a single machine a company is
more vulnerable if a problem exists with an operating system or
application is remedied by virtualization. While the operating systems
and applications are placed on one physical machine they are secured in
their own space which means if there is a problem with any one of them
it is isolated and can’t affect the performance of the others.
IT admins will attest to the benefits of virtualization platforms,
especially when comparing their capabilities to the old multiple server
environment. That doesn’t mean that virtualization is immune to
problems. Among the most common issues that can affect a virtualization
platform include I/O bandwidth bottlenecks fast due to accelerated
fragmentation on virtual platforms, virtual machine competition for
shared I/O resources not effectively being prioritized across the
platform, and virtual disks set to dynamically grow do not resize when
data is deleted, resulting in free space being wasted.
Those are the most common issues and of course
Diskeeper
Corporation has the most effective
solution, virtualization software that is capable of acting as a virtual
platform disk optimizer, delivering invisible background optimization.
Nothing can improve the operability or deliver the desired results of a
virtual platform like virtualization software and Diskeeper has created
the perfect product in V-locity,
virtualization
software that eliminates the bottleneck
issue by creating a faster and more efficient computing platform for
new consolidation and provisioning initiatives without the need to add
additional hardware, V-locity also eliminates competition for shared I/O
resources by coordinating resource usage, and solves the virtual disk
“bloat” problem by compacting the virtual disk, thereby preventing waste
and allowing IT managers to better allocate their virtual storage
resources.
Adapting to change can be an intimidating process for some companies yet
it is a necessary step if they are to grow and succeed. Virtualization
is a giant leap forward and can push a company to the next level but it
is essential that their virtual platforms are maintained properly and
this can be done with something as simple as virtualization software.