Virtualization can help boost operational efficiencies like never before, but you have to understand that the benefits aren’t always immediate. As with anything IT, the price to pay for perks is proper setup and fastidious implementation. Here are a few concerns you need to address before virtualizing your infrastructure.
Backup
Incorporating a robust backup system in a virtualized setting can become a huge challenge. You’d have to determine which data you want to store and how often it should be backed up. You would then have to decide whether you should back up all your virtual machines or just some vital ones that have important apps and data.
In any case, you’ll be caught in a grueling battle because of the overwhelming amount of data that needs to be backed up. The only way to overcome this is to integrate a powerful backup-to-disk solution offered by a reputable managed IT services provider (MSP).
Security
Security concerns are more complicated in a virtualized setting since you have to monitor security on two tiers, namely virtual machine security and physical host security.
Compromised physical host security will affect every virtual machine running on that particular host server. Meanwhile, a compromised virtual machine will disrupt the physical server and affect every virtual machine residing on the same host. To address this problem, you need to set up strong network defenses — including firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, antivirus software, and virtual machine security tools — and a hardened physical security system in the form of surveillance cameras, locks, biometric scans, and security guards. Of course, if you don’t have the funds to set these up, it may make more sense to leave it to a security-conscious MSP.
Monitoring
Since your team has to oversee both virtual machines and physical servers to ensure that you have a fully operational environment, it does have a few pain points.
First, running a monitoring software on the physical host server will likely impact the virtual machines’ performance since it takes up valuable processing power and memory. That means you’ll need to compute the resources used by your monitoring software and make sure they’re not consuming too much from your physical host server.
Second, keeping tabs on your virtual machines and making sure they’re secure and running at all times comprise a full-time job. So unless you have a team of professionals in-house, you’ll definitely need some help from the outside.
Without a doubt, virtualization brings a lot of benefits to the table, but you have to know how it affects every aspect of your business — particularly issues involved in management. Let us show you how you can use it to its full potential. Just give us a call today!