A beginner's guide to virtualization

Simply put, virtualization is the process of running one or more 'logical' computer systems on a single physical machine. This approach originated from mainframe computing systems of the 1960's when expensive hardware of the time was shared between several instances of the underlying operating system.

The introduction of inexpensive client-server computing in the 1980's and 1990's effectively meant that virtualization was abandoned in favour of low-cost distributed computing. However, the sheer growth of the x86 Windows/Linux server market of recent times has managed to re-introduce many of the problems from the mainframe era.

Issues with the client-server boom

Low Utilization	Individual servers rarely average more than 10%-15% of their capacity
High Physical Infrastructure Cost	The proliferation of x86 servers has greatly increased the operational cost of large physical networks
Increased Management Costs	Increasingly complex environments require greater levels of support and administration
Poor Failover & Disaster Recovery	The time taken to recover from failure and implement disaster recover can be high

The return of virtualization

VMware started the commercialization of x86 virtualization in the late 1990's in order to address these problems. More recently they have been followed into the market place by Microsoft with their Virtual PC / Virtual Server line of applications.

Benefits for small business

So, how can virtualization help in the context of a small business? Here are 5 good reasons:

You can simplify your network infrastructure and lower your overall costs by consolidating under-utilised servers on to a single piece of hardware. This can be particularly beneficial when servers need replacing - current server technology can easily perform the work of several servers of yesteryear.
Fewer machines mean that you can save on management, maintenance and environmental costs
They can increase overall security and responsiveness. Not only can a virtual machine be brought up and running in minutes, they also offer a level of applications isolation that can help protect the rest of your network.
Virtual machines make for much easier and simplified backup - you just need to copy the virtual disk drive of each machine rather than schedule an OS specific backup program
They also make for easier restore & disaster recovery. 'Guest' operating systems can be moved from host to host in a matter of minutes.

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