Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Server and Virtualization
What is Virtualization ?
In technology virtualization means that a virtual version of something is create and use regardless of the original version. This could be anything from operating systems, servers, storage devices and networks. One such example is partitioning a hard drive. It is no doubt that virtualization is one of the greatest innovation in the technological world. In fact many businesses are trying to update their system to virtual machines for their own convenience.
What is the use of Virtualization
Since the introduction of virtualization it has become an important part of the daily life. In order for consoling emulation, almost all the virtual machines took the role of a real computer. However like every other technology, virtualization includes certain advantages and disadvantages. These needs to be consider before implementing the system.
Server virtualization has been in the trend for a couple of last years and it is a reality that knocks companies, bringing numerous benefits to all who seek the resource savings and a more effective IT management. Furthermore, it is a green technology.
Server virtualization is the concept of taking a physical server and, with the help of virtualization software, partitioning the server, or dividing it up, so that it appears as multiple “virtual servers,” each of which can run their copy of an operating system.
To give a broader view of server virtualization, here is a comprehensive list of advantages and disadvantages, which can be compensated by using a cloud provider with recognized market action.
Let’s check out the advantages and disadvantages of Virtual Server.
Advantages of Virtual Server:
- Facilities to be simplified, space-saving, time and cost-saving.
- Centralized management and Full compatibility with applications.
- Greater availability and easier recovery in case of disaster.
- The ability for running backups and can use multiple operating system environments on the same computer.
- Controlled access to sensitive data and intellectual property by keeping them safe inside the data center.
- Best use of space: the fewer physical devices installed, the greater the availability of space in racks.
- Migrating servers to new hardware transparently.
- Reliability and Availability – the failure of software does not affect the other services.
- The cost reduction is possible using small virtual servers on a more powerful single server.
- Adapting to different workloads, which can be treat simply. Typically, virtualization software reallocates hardware resources dynamically between a virtual machine and another.
- Load balancing: the whole virtual machine is encapsulate. Thus, it becomes easy to change the virtual machine platform and increase its performance.
- Support for legacy applications: when a company decides to migrate to a new operating system, you can keep your old operating system running in a virtual machine, which reduces the cost of migration.
- Reduction of personnel costs, power, and cooling by using less physical equipment.
- Better utilization of hardware – the hardware sharing by virtual machines is reduce to idle equipment.
- Creates independent user environments. Keeping everything separate is especially useful for purposes like software testing.
- Reduced downtime.
- Ease of migration environments – prevents reinstallation and reconfiguration of systems to be migrated.
Disadvantages of Virtual Server:
- The biggest disadvantage of virtual servers is that if or when the server goes offline, all the websites hosted by it will also go down. Hence, to solve this, the company could set up a cluster of servers.
- Management – virtual environments need to be instantiated (create instances on virtual machines), monitored, configured and saved.
- Difficulty indirect access to hardware, for example, specific cards or USB devices.
- Performance – currently, there are no consolidated methods to measure the performance of virtualized environments.
- When several virtual machines are running on the same host, performance maybe hindered if the computer it’s running on lacks sufficient power.
- Huge RAM consumption since each virtual machine will occupy a separate area of the same.
- It requires multiple links in a chain that must work together cohesively.
- Great use of disk space, since it takes all the files for each operating system installed on each virtual machine.
The advantages and disadvantages of virtualization are a clear indicator that it can be a useful tool for individuals, entrepreneurs, and enterprises when used properly.
In Addition Lets listen The Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtualization.
Advantages of Virtualization
- Cost
- Efficiency
- Uptime
- Deployment
- Energy Savings
Cost
Using a virtualization system is actually cheaper due to the fact that it doesn’t require any hardware components. Therefore, IT infrastructures consider it inexpensive because there is no investment involved in to create on-site resources or any separate areas of space. The only thing that you need is the license or the access from the third party who maintains all the servers.
Efficiency
Virtualization also allows automatic updates to the hardwares and softwares by installing on their third party provider. Due to this IT professionals do not need to spend money for individuals and corporations. In addition to that virtualization reduces the load of resource management for facilitating the efficiencies in the virtual environment.
Uptime
Virtualization has the capability to prevent unnecessary downtime by making use of resources the maximum. Even budget friendly virtualization services can offer an uptime of almost 99.9% today. This can be especially beneficial for small businesses which uses data for testing.
Deployment
Deploying resources are considerably faster when using the virtualization technology. Time spent on creating local networks or setting up physical machines can be saved significantly. Thus, the only thing that you need is at least a single access to the virtual environment. And also virtual machine deployment is more simple than deploying physical versions.
Energy Savings
Using virtualization literally means that the system is more energy efficient since there is no hardware or software that is being used. This helps the companies to neglect the cooling cost of the data center which can significantly reduce the cost of utility bills. Moreover it is more environment friendly because it reduces carbon footprint.
Disadvantages of Virtualization
- Implementation
- Limitations
- Security
- Availability
- Scalability
Implementation
Although it is mentioned that the virtualization is highly cost effective still it needs more investment when it comes to implementation. This is because at some instance the hardwares and softwares are required which means that devices needs to be purchased to make the virtualization possible. This can mainly effect the providers of virtual environment. However it is one time investment which long term benefits.
Limitations
Virtualization does involves many limitations. Every server and application out there is not virtualization compatible. Hence, some of the IT infrastructure of the organizations will not be supporting the virtualized solutions. Moreover there are many vendors who has stopped supporting them. For overcoming this individuals and organizations needs to have a hybrid system.
Security
Data is a crucial aspect of every organization. Data security is often questioned in a virtualized environment since the server is managed by managed by the third party providers. Therefore, it is important to choose the virtualization solution wisely so that it can provide adequate protection.
Availability
Availability is another important aspect of an organization. The data needs to be connect for a prolonged period of time. If not the organization will be going to loose the competition in the industry. The issue with the availability can come from the virtualization servers. The virtualization servers has the tendency to go offline. Hence, the websites which are hosted will also be failed. This is solely controlled by the third party providers, there is nothing the user can do about it.
Scalability
Even though you start the business small, there is always a chance for you to grow bigger. If there are no way you could become large, the entities of the same range can achieve it so. As a result they can dominate small businesses stealing resources from them.
