If you move to using virtual networks, you’ll quickly find that virtualization services offer numerous benefits to your business. One of the most dramatic improvements come from the changes you can make to your application and hardware specifications, as well as to their provisioning. A virtual network can make this process significantly more efficient, as well as giving your business more flexibility in the hardware and software it chooses.
Virtualization Services Improve Hardware and Software Procurement
In the traditional physical server model, the hardware needs of a business are generally subservient to its software needs. That is to say, most businesses choose software packages to base their system around, and then buy hardware that meets the needs of the chosen software. This is logical on a physical system, but leads to a number of problems:
- Hardware is not “future proofed” or purchased with expandability in mind.
- This leads to increased and often unnecessary hardware purchases, if the software changes.
- Application deployment can be delayed for weeks or months waiting on the “right” hardware to arrive.
- Increasing amounts of hardware demands increasing numbers of technicians devoted to maintaining it.
Through virtualization services, you can change this entire picture. Hardware is purchased specifically with an eye towards the future. While this may lead to slightly higher per-unit hardware purchases, the number of purchases will decrease drastically. This allows you to make extremely smart use of your hardware budget, heading off problems that could arise years down the line through good planning.
Additionally, new software deployment can be done far more rapidly. Since servers running virtualization services can be repurposed as needed, software no longer needs to wait for hardware to arrive. New software can be deployed immediately, as soon as it’s purchased, with minimal downtime or delay.
To achieve these benefits, your virtualization team will need to be more closely involved in the procurement process. We recommend inserting your virtualization team into the process directly. They should be informed before a purchase happens, so they can consult with the software vendor and ensure their virtual systems will be properly configured.
Takeaway:
Virtualization services provide numerous benefits that start early in the process and continue to grow as time passes. Using a strategic hardware purchasing strategy for your virtual networks will allow you to optimize your hardware budget, and ensure you always have capability to spare whenever your business needs new software packages.