Now more than ever, companies are turning their data center virtual. GlobalNewsWire and GMI predicts the virtualization market will hit 20 billion dollars by 2030—wow! Forbes has even been writing about this trend for over a decade, stating at the time that the next step was, “…being able to move those virtual machines from data center to data center and use them for business continuity, business pooling or disaster recovery.” Now in 2023, we’re there, and your company can be a part of it! But still you may be wondering, what is virtualization? And how will it benefit your business? Read on to discover why you should utilize virtualization in the data center!
1. What It Is, and Why It’s So Popular
What exactly is virtualization in the data center? Naturally, it’s a center that is all virtual instead of physical, and sells computing resources to users through subscription plans. Coloco expands upon this in their article, “Virtual Data Centers vs. Data Center Colocation. What’s the difference?” by writing, “with a virtual data center, users won’t need to own the physical IT components or a server rack. It would only take a strong internet connection and smart devices to access the computing resources.” (Click the link to discover how it compares to regular data center colocation).
It is also important to address the elephant in the room—the Covid 19 pandemic. Naturally, millions of employees having to work from home made an impact on the tech industry, and contributed to the virtual data center boom. Many physical spaces also closed, and some companies found it was not even necessary to reopen, as virtualization allowed for quick and easy remote work. Arguably, virtual data centers prevented many businesses from going under during the pandemic.
While VDC’s are mostly used by large companies, any business can utilize it. That means yours, whether you’re just starting out or a household name! Additionally, virtual data centers offer subscription plans, so the more data you need to compute, the larger the subscription cost. And though no backup recovery is perfect, the system in place for a virtual data center (failover backup) is about as close as you can get. If a server goes down, too, it will simply be replaced by another Coloco server, giving you time to finish your task and fix the issue simultaneously. That is just one of the many benefits of virtualization, so keep reading for more!
2. Benefits
We’ve already talked about virtualization’s strong backup system, but what else does it have to offer?
- For starters, it’s cost effective. With the subscription model, companies are only paying exactly for what they need, and they don’t have to worry about the fees that come with utilizing an on-premise data center (such as the lease, training employees, etc). Besides that, data centers tend to have secret costs as well. Naturally, this is something you will need to consider if you want to continue growing your business.
- With less servers than a physical location, too, this makes virtualization extremely IT operators can spend less time troubleshooting servers and focus on monitoring the virtual components. You can also work from anywhere and with anything, which we will expand upon more later in the article. Clearly, this saves a lot of time and money. With efficiency also comes speed…
- Remember how long it took to begin working with a new hardware server? After buying, shipping, and installing, it might even have been months. But with virtualization, installation is fast—taking even only a few minutes! This obviously saves abundant time and money, and you can’t ask for much better than that. All IT has to do is utilize a pre-configuration or replicate an existing virtual machine. This way, you’ll be able to begin with virtualization and continue working with your data all at once. Seem too good to be true? Not necessarily!
- Virtualization is (perhaps surprisingly) Maybe you’re wary about going virtual or online, especially given fears with tools like the cloud. But have no fear! Since it is not connected to any underlying hardware infrastructure, data traffic remains secure within itself. It is also very easy to add further security for governmental regulations, so all critical information is well protected. Even massive companies with critical information like Microsoft and Cisco utilize virtual data centers. After all, physical data centers have to utilize a 24-hour monitoring team and potential clearances to stay secure, whereas virtual data centers don’t need quite as many resources to stay safe. This should give you the peace of mind to turn to virtual data centers.
- Wish your company were more flexible? Virtualization allows that! With it, you can access your data no matter where you are—even with the enhanced security measures in place. Forgot about a crucial piece of information while on vacation? With a virtual data center, you can update whenever you need as quick as a wink, and return back to your break. And at work, if you have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy you can connect personal devices to the virtual data center almost instantly. Now you can save money and time… sensing a theme with virtualization?
3. How to Use It
So, you’re ready to transfer to virtualization. This is called “Data Center Migration,” or moving information from one data center to another. But where do you start? First, simply rent a virtual data center. Unlike a physical one, you can customize it to suit the needs of your company, not only with the subscription price, but types of cloud computing as well. As Coloco states in the article mentioned earlier, “As long as you have the storage capacity, there is little or nothing that you can’t do with the computing resources you paid to acquire over an active time frame.” There is so much freedom compared to a physical data center! After your center is rented, Coloco can help you transfer all your necessary assets.
Virtualization will not phase out data center colocation, though. Think of virtual data centers as tools to work with colocation if need be, much like a hybrid model or cloud. Though virtualization has many benefits, that does not necessarily mean it is the only system that works for your company. But be sure to take advantage! Looking for a provider that can work with both virtual and physical data centers? Coloco is affordable and reliable, with 24/7 Human Network Monitoring and Over 150 Gbps Capacity. It’s the way to go whether you’re ready for virtualization or still need more information! Speaking of, scroll down for some key terms regarding virtual data centers.
Terms to Know
So you are a fan of all of the benefits of virtualization, but still need some refreshment on what it does exactly. More details can be found on, “Virtual Data Center (VDC) | Everything You Need to Know!” but here are the key terms.
VDC = Virtual Data Center. (Also SDDC) A “software-defined data center… that provides all the cloud-based resources required to fulfill your business needs.”
IaaS = Infrastructure as a Service. This is when you rent infrastructure only from the colocation service providers rather than owning and maintaining it yourself. One of the main cloud models of a virtual data center.
Paas = Platform as a Service. Platform governed by the colo provider that is designed to host and run users’ applications. The second main cloud model of a virtual data center.
SaaS = Software as a Service. The third main cloud service model that allows organizations to, “quickly and easily add pre-built applications to their existing data infrastructure” (as stated in the link above). Here, the data and configuration is the responsibility of the customer.
TCO = Total Cost of Ownership. All the elements of owning a data center rather than renting a virtual one.
Data Center Migration (also Data Center Relocation) = Moving infrastructure and data from one operating environment to another.
Conclusion
Virtualization in the data center is clearly the way to go for a modern business. It’s cost effective, whether your business is large or small, efficient, secure, fast, and flexible, and it saves—you guessed it—time and money! Ready to make the leap? It’s easy as pie! Start at Coloco, and find all the information you need about virtual data centers right at your fingertips. Plus, location does not matter, for both researching data centers and utilizing them, as Coloco offers fully managed colocation hosting services. Begin your virtual journey today!
