Information for Business from Lenovo
Kat Aoki
Contributor: Kat Aoki
Making virtualisation work for your business

What is virtualisation?

As the technology that has been quietly driving the cloud computing revolution, virtualisation is starting to be recognised in its own right as a way to improve business productivity and efficiency.

With the ability to “virtualise” the functionality of servers, networks and applications independent of their underlying hardware systems, virtualisation is now being seen as a way for businesses to create a more secure IT environment while offering flexibility to workers at the same time.

While it has yet to enjoy widespread adoption in the workplace, the concept of virtualisation has been around for years, starting with the development of the mainframe computing model in the 1960s.

Some of the common types of virtualisation in use today include:

  • Storage virtualisation: Software technology that allows data from multiple storage devices to be consolidated into a virtual pool, allowing for centralised management of data.
  • Network virtualization: A layer of software technology that allows for easier configuration and management of heterogenous networks in an organisation.
  • Desktop virtualization: The running of virtual machines (VMs) on a server that can be accessed by client devices via remote desktop software. The VM's resources (operating system, applications, data, etc.) work as if residing locally on the device.

What all of these technologies have in common is the ability to virtualise systems independent of their physical hardware layers. For example, with desktop virtualisation, a user's computer or handheld device would not run its own copies of applications, but rather a virtual instance of those applications running on a VM. To the user, it appears as if everything is running locally – there is no difference.

The virtualisation model is especially attractive to IT managers in BYOD environments. Employees could easily access instances of applications and data on a variety of devices without needing to store anything locally, making access secure and compliant with business policies.

The benefits of virtualisation

The argument in favour of virtualisation can be convincing. Instead of having to maintain, update and troubleshoot separate applications across numerous machines, a virtualised environment would allow an organisation to install and manage all data, applications and updates from one central location.

As a case in point, consider what happens when an employee loses or accidentally damages their laptop or other BYOD device. Your IT team must then work to restore all the data and applications that once resided on the device – a process that could take hours, even under the best circumstances.

If the employee had been running a virtualised desktop on their device instead, then a spilled coffee does not equate to instant disaster. Instead, your IT team would simply issue a new laptop to the employee, who would then connect to the VM where everything is already running and ready to go. Your employee could be back to work in minutes, rather than hours.

Most organisations have yet to embrace virtualisation

According to a 2013 study by Cisco, 40 per cent of information workers stated they had never heard of desktop virtualisation, and 80 per cent of decision makers said they didn't know whether or not they would benefit from the use of virtualisation. Conversely, 73 per cent of workers said the ability to access work files remotely would be important to their jobs.

What these findings reveal is that, in spite of familiarity with technologies such as mobile and BYOD, there is still a big knowledge gap in many organisations regarding virtualisation, even though it could benefit many employees by allowing them to work and securely access files from anywhere.

Making virtualisation efficient for your enterprise

Some experts point out that between the costs of having to maintain powerful servers and multiple desktop licences, virtualisation can remain out of reach for some organisations. To address the perception of virtualisation being an expensive, niche technology, some providers are working to create low-cost enterprise solutions, such as Citrix's XenApp, which can deliver Windows applications as secure mobile services.

To determine whether or not virtualisation is right for your business, you need to look at how much control you want over your environment, your business's security requirements and your budget, among other factors. But as more people learn about the ability of virtualisation to provide a secure yet flexible IT environment, this technology is sure to make more of an appearance in the workplace in the years ahead.

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