Virtualization in IT has been big in the enterprise market for some time, but it’s not without its advantages for small- and medium-sized operations. Analysts are expecting the adoption of virtualization by SMBs to increase considerably in the months and years ahead. So what’s all the fuss about?
For small businesses, the most immediate and obvious benefit offered by virtualization is the cost savings. This is true of businesses of any size, but it is perhaps more critical for SMBs, which naturally have smaller budgets to throw at IT.
Less Hardware = Less Money
By virtualizing IT infrastructure, SMBs stand to save money on hardware and software. If a company needs to implement three new servers, for example, doing so in a virtualize environment doesn’t require the company to purchase three physical servers, set them up and take care of all routine maintenance. Instead, virtual servers can be provisioned on whatever virtualization platform the company is using, and this can be done at a fraction of the time and cost it would take in a traditional, non-virtualized environment.
Reduce Power and Maintenance Costs
Other areas in which cost savings can be realized are in software licensing, ongoing maintenance and server power and cooling. Obviously, not running physical servers on site means that the costs associated with powering and cooling of those servers, which can add up, are essentially outsourced.
Once a server is up and running, the time and cost involved in maintaining it can add up pretty quickly. Virtualization can offer some relief as the need for physical maintenance is reduced or even eliminated.
Whether it’s across servers or individual virtual machines, the maintenance that does need to be done can be managed far more efficiently in a virtualized environment, where IT support can often be managed from a single administrative console. Things like security updates can be deployed more efficiently, freeing up IT staff members’ time for other projects.
For some small businesses, the majority of IT operations can be outsourced thanks to virtualization and the cloud. This can translate into some pretty dramatic savings for these companies, for whom budgets remain tighter than ever.
Virtualization cost chart courtesy of Real Time Nexus
