Servers, powerful machines that host a computer network's files and applications, are often not used to their full capacity. This is partly due to operators making one server responsible for one application or task on the network, when in fact the server has enough processing power to take on a significantly greater number of tasks.
As a result, data centres often become full of large, underused servers, which take up valuable space and consume vast amounts of energy. Server virtualisation aims to combat these problems, by making one server able to do the job of many.
'Server virtualisation can bring numerous advantages by reducing the amount of physical space required to accommodate servers, giving simplified management and reducing electricity consumption,' said Eric Chim, Hong Kong country sales manager, Acronis.
Virtualisation has also made it easier and cheaper for companies to recover from setbacks such as loss of data, hardware or software.
'[It] has revolutionised disaster recovery,' Mr Chim said, 'allowing for affordable, time-and-space-efficient, flexible and reliable recovery which can even be performed remotely. Eliminating the need for physical server backups is not only logical, but essential to ensure the most efficient and complete disaster recovery.'
Recovery in the physical world can be extremely expensive. If used correctly, a virtualised server can provide protection superior to physical backup at a fraction of the cost of hardware-based solutions.
'However, one of the things that it cannot reduce is amounts of data. The amount of data to be stored will be the same,' Mr Chim said.
