For many people the concept of virtualisation will refer more to virtual reality and entertainment than a solid business tool. For Robin Parkinson, director of Escape Business Technologies, virtualisation is an exciting concept which can have real financial and operational benefits for businesses. As one of the few VMWare Virtual Partners (VIP) in Scotland, Escape can offer local businesses the type of technology and services previously only available to large corporations. 

Q: What is virtualisation?
A: Virtualisation is where multiple virtual machines run in isolation, side by side on the same physical machine. Each virtual machine exists as a small set of files that simulate an entire hardware platform, including the CPU, RAM and network ports. These ‘virtual machine’ files have similar properties as regular files and can therefore be saved, copied or moved very quickly from one physical machine to another. 

Q: What are the benefits of virtualisation?
A:  The main benefits of virtualisation are reduced costs, both capital and operational; including reducing office space required to store multiple servers, reduced hardware and management costs and reduced power consumption. Both planned and unplanned downtime will be reduced meaning that your business can continue to function as close to 24/7 as possible.

Q: Would virtualisation help in a disaster recovery situation?
A: Yes, disaster recovery procedures can be simplified, become more flexible and more cost effective by introducing virtualisation. Downtime in the event of a system crash can also be vastly reduced and backup procedures can become extremely straightforward. 

Q: What about security? Is it safe to have all our systems together on one machine?

A: Even though each virtual server is stored on one machine there is no more risk than if they were stored in the traditional fashion on separate hardware. The correct implementation of Virtualization software, such as VMware ACE, means that organizations can increase data security and enable safe access to IT resources.

Q:  What about integrating new systems, both hardware and software, can virtualisation help with that?

A:  Virtualisation really comes into its own when your organisation is going through a period of change; such as acquiring a new company and their associated IT systems. Changes to your server, such as adding additional software or data, can be made quickly and safely.  These changes can be tested before going live by creating a virtual copy of your current server on which changes can be made and tested with the safe knowledge that should anything go wrong the original is still there.

Escape, the fastest growing IT company in the north-east, as recognised by Deloitte, has grown from a small local client base when the company was founded in 1999, to servicing 200 clients across the UK today. To find out more about their products and services visit www.escape-tech.co.uk