How virtualization enables the cloud and saves money

One of the most salient topics in enterprise politics right now is cloud computing. Regardless of whether business officials choose an internal, external or hosted cloud strategy, the technology is streamlining processes and productivity across a diverse spectrum of industries and driving business model innovation.

However, while the cloud may be the subject of a good many talks at the water cooler, it is oftentimes forgot that another phenomenon is actually responsible for driving many of the benefits experienced through cloud applications: virtualization.

According to business-to-business technology news source Telecom Lead: “Virtualization is the decoupling of application software and operating systems from the underlying server hardware and it is at the heart of the cloud business model. It enables physical server resources (processor and memory) to be dynamically allocated among multiple applications (i.e. workloads), even those from different tenants – a necessary factor for economic delivery of shared cloud services. Without virtualization, cloud providers could not afford to offer capacity on demand, in increments as short as an hour at a time.”

And the practice of digitizing processes that formerly only existed in the physical world is generating big cost savings. For example, traditional servers generally are not filled to their max capacity. However, in somewhat counterintuitive fashion, it is often the case that new applications will require their own servers, even when existing ones still have space.

These servers then need to be configured, maintained, powered and cooled, all incurring immense expenses that made a fast ROI difficult to achieve.

But, by virtualizing hardware, businesses can maximize their existing IT investments by making servers far more flexible and scalable so that they meet the specific needs of a company at any given point in time.

Companies without the internal personnel to implement a virtualization program would benefit from partnering with a national IT service such as CTI Technology that can provide optimal security, enhanced data management and other deployment solutions.

While the cloud may be the subject of a good many talks at the water cooler, it is oftentimes forgot that another phenomenon is actually responsible for driving many of the benefits experienced through cloud applications: virtualization.