Virtual Server Solutions
Server virtualization provides a centralized grid of computing resources ( processing, memory, high-speed disk, security, connectivity ) from where applications reside in a virtualized environment.
At a fraction of the cost of traditional dedicated servers, Virtual Server Solutions provide enterprise-class:
- Speed
- Reliability
- Security
- Scalability
By sharing resources across hundreds of business-class systems, and at a fraction of the cost, it’s easy to see why VSS is the future of Information Technology.
- VSS grids are built on enterprise-class hardware and software
- VSS grids are scalable, secure, and inherently redundant
- VSS grids are far more reliable than traditional servers
- Once created, provisioning resources within a VSS grid is far easier and up to 100 times faster than traditional server provisioning
- Building on an economy of scale, VSS grids are much easier to support with fewer human resources required than traditional IT models
The Key Ingredients
Every business, regardless of size, needs several key technologies to be reliable, scalable, and always available.
These include:
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What are virtual servers?
Virtual servers (VS) are every bit the same to you, the end user, as a physical server. To us techies, however, and to your boss (who has to buy all these physical servers and pay someone to support them), virtual servers are truly a beautiful thing. In a nutshell, a virtual server is an operating system, plus applications (like SQL, Websites, Exchange) running on top of another operating system. They boot up, perform, and interact on the network just like a physical machine, except it uses the hardware of its host (VSHost).
Why would I want a virtual server environment?
Four main reasons:
1. Disaster Recovery: Virtual servers are hardware agnostic (they'll run on almost any hardware). This means that they're very easy to restore to another location (even your old server in the back room), and since one VSHost can run multiple virtual servers, you can have one big machine handle offsite DR for your whole office (instead of one DR server per physical server).
2. Resource consolidation: One VSHost can run multiple VSs. Its unfortunately very common to have one server get a hundred different roles loaded onto it in a small to medium business environment (SMB). We all know this is bad. Things always run better when I can split up the roles among multiple machines, rebooting a print server, for example, shouldn't take down your file server, but in an SMB they're often the same machine. With VSs, I can have one virtual print server and a separate virtual file server, both on the same hardware.
3. Safe changes and patching: Restoring a VS with its system state in tact is unbelievably easy compared to a physical machine. For example, snapshot the VS before installing all the Microsoft patches, then apply the patches and reboot. If you don't like it, you can revert to the previous snapshot (usually only of the C: drive) and you're instantly back to exactly where you were before the change. This also works great for development environments. In addition, upgrades to hardware are really easy, as nothing has to be reinstalled on the VS.
4. Application testing: Ever wanted to fully test your app before going into production? Everyone does, the problem is maintaining a staging / testing environment that's really a duplicate of production without VSs is almost impossible. With virtual servers, however, you simply copy the virtual machine files and hard drive images to a staging VSHost that's on a separate network, boot them up and you have an exact copy of production. Test your changes here and you can rest assured that they will always work the same when rolled into production.
Professional Services Virtual Server Solutions
FCS-PROFSVCS-VSS-CNSLT
Additional Related Future Com Professional Services offerings:
Network Optimization Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment
Anti-Virus Solution Assessment
PCI Compliance Readiness Assessment