Small Business IT Virtualization while new for this segment has a history since the 1960s and the technology is well understood in the enterprise. I was at a small business customer recently and mentioned server virtualization and the owner said, "what's that?" I loved hearing those words because it is a great opportunity to add value. Even small companies typically have a mail server, a domain controller, a file server and perhaps a SQL server. Consolidating these servers can save hundreds of dollars a month for customers in power and cooling and space alone. Even if a customer has only one server, the benefits of server virtualization in disaster recovery time are compelling when the entire business will go down if they are dependent on that server. A further benefit is a reduced cost of maintenance.
The great thing about this is that it can be effectively cost-neutral. The leasing costs for a server virtualization project are often less than the savings that it provides. So, a small business can upgrade its infrastructure, increase its resiliance and save money for free in some cases!
Other forms of virtualization (desktop, storage, etc.) extend the benefits further, but that is a discussion for another time...
Key Takeaways:
- Server virtualization is mature technology just now reaching small businesses
- Consolidating servers may save hundreds of dollars a month in power and cooling
- Businesses may often upgrade their infrastructure effectively for free by virtualizing
