Should you believe the hype about server virtualization?

Foreward:

Reasons I took MIS:
-I did not understand anything about technology or networks
-I wanted to own and operate my own business one day
-Understanding and leveraging technology is important to stay competitive in any business today

And yet after reading all your posts, researching for this briefing, and 3 semesters of MIS classes later technology and networks seem more complex than ever before! This is why I again chose a challenging and uninteresting topic I knew nothing about to gain some understanding of what big organizations are implementing in order to stay competitive.

Should you believe the hype about server virtualization?

In this blog post, you will understand the pros and cons of server virtualization and benefits VMware's Virtual Software Defined Networks in case any of you are thinking about going into consulting, owning your own business, or becoming the CTO of the next big thing (hook it up with a job when you get there). I will describe the reasons server virtualization should be leveraged in large-scale companies and why it is an important concept to understand going forward in the next stage of your life.

First, watch this 2-minute video that explains the benefits of network virtualization of VMware NSX:

So that was what VMware's (Virtual Machines Ware) NSX software-defined data centers can do for a typical company. But does the size of the company matter? I believe it does and here is why!

Virtualization is an increasing technology that enables an organization to reduce storage costs, increase cyber threat mitigation, and propel growth in a company. Server virtualization certainly provides more efficient storage, security, and long-term costs however it depends on the business/organization’s needs, requirements, and budget as to if they want to purchase or convert their servers to become virtual. A smaller or mid-scale business might not have any incentive to make the switch to virtual because they don’t need the extra storage, they might not own more than one server and the learning curve may affect their process. A large business who has over 1,000 employees and multiple servers experience many issues when dealing with outages, system maintenance, and large-scale modifications. Virtual machines allow for companies to provide their employees with virtual servers that can over-utilize their systems hardware and storage (VMWare). The installation of virtual configuration is quick and once completed enables companies to use more physical resources that are actually available ("Virtualization and Cloud-Computing.”).

Corporate legislature enforces privacy and security laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm Leach Bliley, and HIPAA where companies need to meet such strict security requirements. It is more efficient and easier to control virtual machines from one source (SysAdmin) than multiple admins (VMWare). For example, allocating dummy computers to employees will not only decrease costs but mitigate the risks of losing confidential security if the laptop is stolen or lost because the virtual machine that is connected to the central network can be wiped out at the click of a button. If a crook hacks one virtual machine, he/she will not be able to hack the others nor if the cyber hacker crashes one virtual machine the tangible servers will not be affected. I believe these two benefits just listed are the exact reason why companies, especially ones that trust a lot of their employees with confidential information should invest in virtualization. 

That’s not the only aspect that would save a large business or corporation money though, if a large corporation has purchased, let’s say 5 window server licenses that would cost the company approximately $10-$15k in licensing fees (Vincenti). However, with virtualization, this same company could purchase 1 server license and host the 4 other virtual servers without any extra cost. If a scalable company intends to grow its staff size and storage space virtualization should be considered. Fewer servers mean less power output and cooling requirements that make companies rack up expensive bills.

I believe a large flexible company with an experienced IT staff should believe the hype of virtualization when they have the ability and capacity to train their employees. This is because the major downside to implementing virtual machines is the learning curve. Although virtual machines can be installed in a few hours the average employee or IT member might find it difficult to grasp the concepts of virtual servers and storage and may cause the IT department a lot of unnecessary hassle at first. I mentioned above that virtual machines can over utilize physical storage that is not actually present however if a company is thin provisioning say if there are 2 TB on a server and 5 virtual machines that use 1 TB each when and if they are all working simultaneously it might cause issues (Vincenti). This is like how the market crashed, the banks insured too many people knowing they didn’t have the funds but when millions of people defaulted all at once the banks and the housing market crashed. If too much hardware is synthetically allocated the virtual machines will collapse (obviously not as traumatic or influential as the financial market crisis but you get the point).

Upfront software licensing fees are expensive for minor companies to afford so if the organization doesn’t think they can afford to pay off the debt for a while they should not invest in the new technology. However, if a company intends to rapidly expand and increase their IT staff a network like VMware's NSX should be considered (Why just them? Because I am an investor in VMware).

Bottom-line, small and mid-scale businesses in my opinion although may benefit them in the long run, there really isn’t a reason why they should take the time and spend the money to implement virtualization into their servers. For corporations and large-scale companies, virtualization is a must in this fast and rapid-changing world. Server virtualization will unlock so many benefits such as higher resource utilization, security, reduction size of physical infrastructure, controlled SysAdmin’s, and reduction in power & cooling requirements, that by not investing in virtualization infrastructure, in the long run, would be a costly mistake.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post and I hope you aren't more confused than you were before. 

-Kevin

Questions:

1) Will the progression virtual servers eventually eliminate data centers? 

2) How will this revolution impact the cybersecurity industry?

3) How will virtual servers impact cyber threats in the future?

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xTx6qQ-kfo

https://www.networkworld.com/article/3263399/virtualization/top-10-ways-server-virtualization-improves-the-data-center.html (Vincenti)

https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere.html 

https://www.rackspace.com/en-us/vmware/server-virtualization