Why Moving to a Virtual Data Center is Good
In times of recession, concern spreads throughout IT enterprises, as limited budgets force companies to clamp down on IT operational costs. A majority of IT expenses go towards infrastructure requirements like large scale storage involving servers, data centers. These are the first to be targeted for cuts.
More data and information entails greater storage and data management space. Adding physical or blade servers would provide the necessary space but with mounting operational costs and power consumption requirements. Another approach was “application consolidation” but abandoned owing to issues such as resource crunch, conflicts and version incompatibility of databases.
The most promising implementation in IT infrastructure was the evolution of virtual data centers, as evidenced by Kronos – one of the pioneers in global workforce management solutions. The company was faced with increasing pressure from all sides owing to spiraling costs in IT. After going through detailed studies, they settled for virtualized data centers. The results were astounding: power consumption went down by 20 per cent and Kronos was able to shave off nearly $1.2 million in expenses.
A wise virtualization strategy involves a clear understanding of shared storage needs and necessary management skills to avoid unchecked sprawls. Some of the important benefits of moving to a virtual data center are:
- Offers enterprises (big and small) a dynamic platform for operations that facilitates smooth transit of live applications from one physical server to another, due to the virtualized environment present.
- Increased availability of key business applications for smooth functioning of important business models even in the event of a hardware failure.
- Existing infrastructure can be spruced up for better resource handling and load management across servers to provide optimum output with minimal consumption of resources.
- Backup and disaster recovery is made easier with readily available backup storage and software tools, which also prevents business operations from being disrupted owing to data center downtime
- Scalability of the data center infrastructure is possible at high levels without compromising efficiency or facing mounting costs.
These characteristics are attributed to the technology’s high availability features that improve the operations of a business. GMO Cloud offers this type of feature as it delivers faster access and lower latency from any location worldwide.
Thus the strategy of moving to a virtual data center paves the way for greater flexibility in administration as well as reduction of IT expenditure. It is a clear cut solution for IT organizations and business enterprises looking to streamline operations with minimal economic burdens.
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About the Guest Author:
Mandira Srivastava is a fulltime freelance writer who specializes in technology, health and fitness, politics, and financial writing. Equipped with degree of mass communication and having worked for both private and corporate clients, I have experience meeting a wide range of writing requirements and styles.
