IT Virtualization

Control costs, streamline operations and secure your network with managed virtual IT solutions from Sage BCI

IT Virtualization is a new approach to managing your businesses information techonology (IT) infrastructure. With IT virtualization, servers and computing assets that were traditionally located at your facility are replaced with managed servers and computing assets located off-site, or in the "cloud". This greatly reduces the cost and complexity of the computing infrastructure a customer must have at their own facility. Sage BCI will proactively manage the virtual infrastructure to provide optimal security and ensure a consistent, reliable and capable computing platform for your businesses users.

Benefits

  • Controlled cost
  • Reduced need for onsite IT staff
  • Sage's expertise
  • Seamless upgrades to new versions of software
  • Replace bulky PCs with thin clients. Cheaper, easier to maintain.
  • Minimal downtime in the rare event of system failure

Details

Sage Business Consulting, INC would like to introduce you to a new trend in today's technology, commonly referred to as "Virtualization", or "Cloud Computing". Implementations of this new technology are vast however "Server Virtualization" and "Desktop Virtualization" are most prominent. Both of these methods work together to improve the operation and maintenance of your current computing environment and to reduce the overall cost of ownership for your small business network.

Server Virtualization allows for multiple servers to operate on one physical host. The technical terminology changes with "Virtualization" as "servers" are no longer referred to as the physical box that is in your office or server room. The term that now refers to these physical boxes is "Host", which is located in another building (right?). This facility hosts your server (?) where maintenance and sustainability can be ensured.

Desktop Virtualization is moving the CPU processing away from the local desktop to a virtual machine that is hosted on the "Host" equipment. This process works by accessing the virtual machine from a computer either by a remote desktop protocol or an Internet browser. The computers that are being used are known as thin clients.

There are several key points about these virtual methods that are revolutionary compared to the classic "Microsoft Server Client Paradigm". The Virtualization revolution has been widely propelled by the reduction of cost for a single business. For instance a company with 10 servers can cut down to 2 hosts, resulting in huge savings in hardware and power consumption. You will be able to save money now and over the service-life of your equipment, compared to your current infrastructure configuration. With enterprise level security implementation such as virus protection and data mining protection, your company will avoid security issues and network breaches that plague small business everywhere. Also, you will be able to access your desktop from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection, and access your desktop just the way you left it. The flexibility and portability of virtualization will make you wonder how you ever operated your business without it.

Cost savings start with your hardware. Most likely the last time you purchased a Server or a Desktop PC there was a painful adjustment to your bank account. If you tried to save money by purchasing bargain equipment, you most likely lost it from the additional tech support required. With the implementation of a Virtualized environment, along with the purchase of Thin Client PC's instead of desktop PC's, you will spend much less. The investment for Thin Clients is only a quarter of what you will spend on a high end desktop PC. Power consumption of a Think Client PC is also significantly less than that of a desktop PC, as the thin clients operate with 50 Watt power supplies versus the 300 Watt power supplies of most desktop PC's. And if you're wondering, "Do I need to replace all of my desktops with Thin Clients?" the answer is "No, your existing desktop can be configured to act as a Thin Client, known as a 'Thick Client'". So when Virtualizing your business, you don't have to fully integrate the software if you feel most comfortable with only partial implementation.

Presently you are most likely finding that your current system falls short of your expectations and demands. Issues that are impacting current desktop PC's include never or rarely maintenanced systems, and systems that are out of date or infected by Viruses and Malware. With Thin Clients the only demand is to show you the remote desktop from the server. If you're remote desktop needs more memory, processing power or advanced configurations, it is a much simpler process than upgrading a physical system. The server handling the Desktop Virtualization is adjusted to share more resources with a client. Additionally a new system can be generated within a matter of minutes, versus the long process of purchasing new hardware, delivering and configuring that equipment.

Security of your data will take a big leap from your present configuration with improved storage technology and network monitoring. One of our biggest problems presently is with clients storing data in locations that are not backed up, or with back up routines that are not maintained by the end user. This results in lost data that may be crucial to a business and difficult to retrieve. With virtualization all data is absolutely stored on the host and the server is backed up on a daily bases.

Virtualization offers the resilience and portability which allows an office to be more flexible. The trend allows a widely dispersed work force that extends to the needs of your employees and the comfort of your necessities. Employees can be in the field, in their home and satellite offices with the same access and resources that the office workers enjoy. Altogether, Virtualization can help your business cut costs, keep systems up to date, and allows the workplace to be more accessible to employees.