{"id":2327,"date":"2011-08-12T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.formtek.com\/blog\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2011-08-12T07:00:40","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T15:00:40","slug":"data-virtualization-many-benefits-but-not-without-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/data-virtualization-many-benefits-but-not-without-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Virtualization: Many Benefits, but not without Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtualization is a simulation of the real version of something. \u00a0The term can be applied<\/a> to hardware, software and applications, but typically virtualization refers to software that abstracts the hardware of a physical computer. \u00a0Virtual machine software can trick an operating system designed to run on a single physical machine to be able to run within a virtualized environment. \u00a0This makes it possible to run multiple virtual machine environments side-by-side on a single physical machine.<\/p>\n

A main benefit of virtualization is server consolidation. \u00a0In the past software applications would often required to be run on dedicated server hardware, but despite that requirement, very often the application would not fully utilize the resources of the server machine. \u00a0 Server consolidation using virtualization saves money because it means that less power is required because there are fewer physical machines drawing power and fewer machines require less cooling. \u00a0Server consolidation also means that the size of data centers can shrink, making them easier to manage and maintain while saving money since less real estate is required.<\/p>\n

Virtualization technology has proven to be very popular. \u00a0A survey by Veeam software<\/a> found that as many as 92 percent of all organizations are using virtual machine technology and that, on average, 40 percent of servers running in organizations today are virtual ones. \u00a0The most popular vendors of virtual machine technology are VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen.<\/p>\n

Ratmir Timashev<\/a>, President and CEO of Veeam, said “As the significant cost, power and efficiency benefits of virtualization accelerate its position within the enterprise, so the potential of all IT infrastructures to be based on virtual estates increases.”<\/p>\n

But the Veeam report found that along with the benefits of virtual machines there are also challenges which include:<\/p>\n