Virtualisation of servers and desktops is achieved with software solutions from various vendors such as Microsoft and VMware. These products enable a larger server to be divided up into small virtual machines. This allows an organisation to extract the maximum resources out of physical machines. By installing a minimum of two servers resilience is automatically built in ensuring that there is no single point of failure.
For the past eight years server virtualisation has been the main motive for organisations wanting to reduce server and operational costs. In recent years this has extended to the desktop and is called VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). Many organisations are adopting VDI as the first phase of machine virtualisation as the savings that can be achieved by replacing (or not buying new) PC's. These machines are just a commodity now so any cost saving solution is now widely accepted.
VDI also allows users to work from any location. By not being tied to a PC in the office and able to access a desktop virtual machine from any location organisations can introduce home working, working from home when it is not possible to get into the office and reduce the number of laptops for people that just work from two or more locations.
For server virtualisation the main benefits are reduced cost of server purchases and availability at no cost. As a general guide a server costs £2,500. A virtual machine running on a larger server that has been divided up into many virtual machines typically costs £1,100 per virtual machine. For VDI deployments where servers can be divided up many more times the cost per virtual machine is typically £150, about half the cost of a desktop PC.
By not being tied to a PC in the office and able to access a desktop
virtual machine from any location organisations can introduce home
working
Other benefits of VDI and server virtualisation are the ability to centralise data making backup easier and lower costs. Consolidating desktops into a VDI environment brings the biggest saving and that is concurrent usage. Currently in a PC environment if you have 100 desktop computers you must have 100 licenses of products like Microsoft Office.
With VDI it is possible to run less virtual machines than users as in all organisations some people are out at meetings, on holiday or off sick. This method of desktop delivery is called dynamic allocation. This means when a user logs in they are allocated a virtual machine for the time they are working. When they are finished it is returned to the pool so someone else can use it. With a virtualised solution all user data is stored on a file server so each machine can be used by different people.
The key is cost. Virtualisation allows significant reductions in computing power for any organisation and as long as the solution is designed effectively the return on investment can be measured in months. A usual payback period for server virtualisation is 8 to 14 months. For VDI deployments the average pay back period is 5 to 7 months.
It is easily possible to combine server and desktop virtualisation into the same solution. In fact it is a best practice to do so as the workloads on each type of virtual machine are different and this helps utilise the physical resources to the maximum.
Virtualisation is not new. VMware were the first vendor to introduce this technology in 2000. Microsoft has just entered the market. Citrix purchased Xen Server in 2007 and all these technologies provide the savings that are possible.
With the growth in server hardware performance virtualisation has become a major topic for all types of organisations from SME to corporate size companies and the public sector.
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