“Virtualization” is a term thrown around frequently in the computing world these days. What does it mean and how can it help your business?

For many years best practices recommended a one server per application model. For example, your email server would run on one piece of hardware and your file server on another.  Adherence to this strategy distributed critical applications across multiple hardware platforms and reduced the risk of downtime due to a single hardware failure.  

With the introduction of hardware virtualization, this traditional mode of segmentation has been improved upon and, in many ways, replaced.  Put simply, hardware virtualization is a process that allows a server to run multiple operating systems at once. This is accomplished by creating virtual computer hardware inside computer software that is running on top of actual computer hardware. 

Sound complicated?

The software that controls this juggling act is called a “hypervisor.” Hypervisors - offered by major companies ranging from Microsoft and Citrix to industry leader VMware - allow businesses to take advantage of economies of scale. Instead of running one application inside one operating system on one piece of hardware, a hypervisor allows the same machine, known as a “host,” to run multiple operating systems.  Each operating system is segmented from one another and each runs a single application (email, file or database services). By utilizing fewer, more powerful server platforms, coupled with secure and manageable hypervisor software, today’s server rooms are efficient spaces that cost far less to build and support than the hot, noisy, and expensive server rooms of yesteryear.

Pioneering Network has industry certified technicians who have been implementing virtualization strategies in both the private and public sectors since the technology’s inception. If you want to save money and maximize your technology dollars, Pioneering Network has the right virtualization solution for you.