1)  Save Money

Did you know that each healthy server in your server room has between 80-90% of its resources going unused?  Don’t believe me?  Go to one of your servers, right click on the task bar and open task manager.  Click on the performance tab and take note of your CPU usage.  It probably spiked up when you opened task manager and then settled back in under 10%.  Many times it will stay around 1%.  If you have 10 servers in your server room, you are probably using the equivalent of 1 of those servers’ CPUs.

While each resource is an apples and oranges comparison to CPU, the same is true for all of the resources in your servers to varying degrees.  Virtualization allows you to run multiple servers as virtual machines (VMs) on 1 physical server (Host).  So in my example of a 10 server environment, it would be feasible to run all of those servers as VMs on a total of 2 or 3 Hosts.  If you are spending an average of $5,000 per server then your server hardware expense alone is about $50,000 every 3 years.  Compare that to 3 powerful VM Host servers at around $7,000 each or about $20,000 to $25,000 total.  Plus, the redundancy you get in a virtual environment (more on this below) reduces the risk of using a server for a longer period of time.  Therefore, it would make sense to increase the lifecycle of your servers to 5 years which increases your savings even more.

You also save money just by running fewer servers.  When you consider electricity for server power and AC, it takes about 5 years for a server to match its price tag in electricity cost.  Sometimes you can even eliminate the amount of real estate needed to host your servers by moving to virtualization.  These are things that often go unnoticed but do amount to real savings over the life of your servers.

2)  Increase Network Reliability

When most people first learn about virtualization, their first reaction is to resist the idea of putting all of your eggs (VMs) in one basket (Host).  What if that Host server crashes?  Now a hardware failure can bring down 3 or 4 servers as opposed to just one?  No thanks.  Believe me, I understand that feeling and as an IT Manager of a 200 user firm for about 10 years, I know the feeling of that empty pit in the stomach when a critical server goes down.  In my personal experience, this is the number 1 reason why I moved away from physical servers.

Virtualization frees your servers from their dependence on any one machine in particular.  What this means is that if you are running 3 Hosts in your network and one of them crashes, then your VMs can immediately boot up on the 2 Hosts that are still running.  Let me give you an example of how this works.  Your IT Manager is on vacation playing golf with his buddies.  Sure enough, this is the day that one of your servers fails.  In a panic, you call your IT guy and let him know what just happened.  He replies, “OK, let me call you back in 15 minutes.”  You’re thinking that this is great that he has remote access.  He is thinking the par 3 along the side of this lake is beautiful and he’s ready to tee off.  So he drives one right on to the green.  Then he lines up his putt, and sinks the birdie.  As he is walking off the green his phone rings again because you are calling him back.  “What did you just do?”

He replies, “I just birdied the 9^th hole!”

“No, I mean with the servers.  Everything is running again.”

“Nothing.  I already configured the VMs to boot up on another Host in the event of a hardware failure.”

Now you are just confused and you hang up the phone because you never really liked that guy anyway.

But all kidding aside, this is how your network can really operate.  With a virtual environment properly configured by BNC VMware certified engineers, you can have an environment where after a Host failure, the VMs running on that Host will automatically boot up on the remaining Hosts without any intervention from IT personnel.  This gives you plenty of time to repair the down server, bring it back online and move those VMs back over.  Speaking of moving VMs, here is something else to consider.

Have you ever received those emails from the IT department notifying you that the email server will be down on Saturday because they need to make hardware changes to the server?  Not anymore.  Virtualization allows you to move VMs from one Host to another while the VMs are still running.  Now, when you have any reason to bring a server down (hardware replacement, BIOS upgrades, etc.), you can do so without any interruption to the end users.  These are just a few examples of the many benefits to virtualization that keep your servers running and your end users working.

3)  A Better Disaster Recovery Plan and Backup Routine

A VM is one file that runs on a Host.  If you make a copy of that file, you have backed up your entire server in the state it was in at the time of the copy.  This gives you a tremendous advantage over traditional backup methods.  Traditional backups consist of data only.  So if a server crashes, you need to rebuild the server to the state it was in before the crash, and then restore the data.  This is a process that can take anywhere from 1 day to a week depending on the circumstances.  If you back up VMs as a file, then a server restore takes the same amount of time that it takes to copy that backed up file from its source to the destination.  In other words, server restores now take minutes rather than days.

There are also many third party applications available to enhance your backups of virtual machines.  Some allow you to backup VMs while they are running.  Others allow you to replicate VMs from one host to another multiple times throughout your day.  You can back up your Exchange server as a machine (for disasters) and have the ability to restore specific mailboxes (often referred to as brick level backups).  Many people keep backups of their VMs on-site and off-site so that machines can be restored quickly whether it is a local emergency or a site disaster.

For those businesses with multiple locations, you can configure a disaster site where you replicate your VMs in real time.  In the event of a disaster, you can immediately boot your servers at your disaster site and be back on-line in a matter of minutes.  While this may sound cost prohibitive, we can limit that expense by building your disaster site with existing hardware that will no longer be needed after you invest in virtualization.

4)  Ease Your IT Administration

Ask your IT Administrator how much she enjoys patching her servers.  Then duck.  You have heard the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Unfortunately, this gets you in trouble in the world of technology.  New threats and vulnerabilities are discovered every day.  If you do not patch your servers, you put yourself in an exponential amount of risk every day.  Unfortunately, some patches have side effects that cause certain server processes to fail.

Once again, Virtualization comes to the rescue!  Simply make a snapshot of you VM, and install the patch.  If there are any problems, revert to the snapshot and keep running as if you never tried the update.  In fact, this entire process can be automated when the updates run at night.  If there are any problems in the morning, just roll back and you are back to normal.  For those critical servers you can even take this a step further by cloning the VM.  Now you have another copy of the VM that you can run outside of your network environment.  Go ahead and install patches, upgrade the software or OS.  Do whatever you want without any fear and test thoroughly to make sure there are no issues because you have created a test environment with your actual server.

Evaluating server applications is also easier in the virtual world.  Before, when your IT admin wanted to test an application, she had to find an old PC or server, install the OS, install the application, and then test it out.  If she liked the application, she would then have to acquire a new server and install everything all over again.  In a virtual environment, new servers can be brought online with a few clicks.  With the previous creation of some OS “templates”, you don’t even have to install the OS anymore.  Your IT admin can have a Windows Server up and running within 5 minutes ready for testing.  If you want to keep the application, just apply the appropriate licensing and you are done.  If not, simply delete the VM with a few clicks.  Testing has never been easier.

Refreshing server hardware in a physical environment is another nightmare for IT administrators.  Replacing a physical server means that the new server needs to be installed and configured to work the exact same way and then all data has to be migrated over.  This rarely goes without any hiccups even for the most careful planners.  In the virtual world, it is a day at the park.  Simply install the new servers and configure for your virtual network.  Once they are working properly, simply move your existing VMs to the new Hosts.  Since these VMs can be moved while running, all of these tasks can be performed during the day without your end users even being aware of the change.

5)  Improve Network Performance

It seems counter-intuitive that putting multiple servers on one machine can improve performance.  But this is indeed the case.  When you configure a virtual server to have 2 CPUs and 6 GB of RAM, that server will perform the same as a physical server with the same specifications.  If you decide that the server needs more RAM, you can make that adjustment with a few clicks which makes it easier to allocate the exact resources to a server that it needs.  This way, all of your servers have everything they need and nothing gets wasted.

A Host server will always have multiple network cards (NICs) which will enable you to create “NIC teams.”  A NIC team looks like one network card to a VM, but it is actually a combination of multiple NICs.  Think of your network card as a highway that traffic uses to travel to and from your server.  In the physical world, you are using a one lane highway for all that traffic.  In the virtual world, you can create a 3 lane highway and allow that traffic to fly.

Another example of increased performance can happen when you have an application server that communicates with a database server (i.e. a web server with SQL back end).  If those servers are running on the same Host, then their communication speeds increase dramatically because now the data is only traveling through a virtual network rather than a physical network that is limited by your network switch.  Even a fast 10GB physical network is no match for a virtual network on one Host, where the data is already there!

6)  Virtual Appliances

VMware offers thousands of virtual appliances on their web site.  These appliances can be anything from SPAM blockers and mail servers to VOIP servers.  Some appliances will provide ERP and CRM.  Other appliances can give you tools to better monitor your network.  Basically, anything that a server can do, an appliance can do.  If you see something you like, download it and run it in a matter of minutes.  Evaluate it before deciding to buy the license (many appliances are free).  If you don’t like it, delete it.  It is as simple as that.

7)  Ease of Implementation

VMware has many entry points to virtualization including some versions that are free.  VMware Server runs on a Windows Server or a distribution of Linux.  This is mainly for testing although there are some instances where it may make sense to use this for business purposes.  There is also a free version that runs on the same Linux backbone that the enterprise version does.  While there are many limitations to using this version, the VMs that you run on this server are the same as what runs on the any other version.  So it is possible to start with the free version and then add VMware licensing as you grow and desire some of the more advanced features that are not free.  Also, VMware has bundles available for small businesses starting at $495 which enables you to run up to 3 Hosts as well as the vCenter application for your administrative tasks and third party application plug-ins.  This price structure lowers the barriers to virtualization to the point that it is almost always more expensive to proceed any other way.

VMware also has tools available to convert your physical servers to VMs (P2V).  This can be done while the physical server is running and usually takes an hour or two to complete.  You can also do V2V conversions if you have a VM that was created on another platform.  Moving your servers from a physical environment to a virtual environment is truly a painless process that will enable you reap many rewards for years to come.

If you want to change your IT infrastructure to a stable platform that gives you peace of mind when thinking about your company’s network resources and data, call BNC today and let us help you plan and design your virtual network.