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What are the benefits of a virtual data center?
One of the hosting providers that we are considering is boasting their "virtual data center" as being a benefit to using their service. I'm curious to know what the benefits of a virtual data center are? I'm sure it probably reduces cost, but is it safe? If its so great, why aren't all companies moving to a virtual data center?
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4 Answers
Rachael,
Joyce is correct on all the issues she's touched on. And while "virtualization" has two distinct meanings as they pertain to data center infrastructure, I believe Joyce is correct in assuming you mean Cloud Services, which at its simplest form is nothing more than "renting" and leveraging someone else's infrastructure that happens to be more robust than anything you would want to build on your own.
In addressing your other questions, on security, reliability and mass adoption, here's some food for thought.
Security and reliability comes down to the vendor you choose. Everyone from Amazon and Google to many smaller players are offering virtualization and cloud computing options. Some offer regulatory compliance options that satisify SOX or HIPPA and others let you simply "rent" their infrastructure. It really depends on what your needs are and what your budget is.
As far as mass adoption and "why aren't all companies moving to a virtual data center?" I can tell you that millions of companies, not just hundreds of thousands, have embraced some sort of cloud solution weather it be partial or whole. However, some of the very large enterprise clients (say the Proctor & Gamble's of the world or the Cisco's of the world) have vast and established Infrastructures consisting of data centers and client access points that dwarf some of the cloud and data virtualization providers out there. But even someone like a Cisco for example may choose to off-load some of its compute needs to a vendor that provides a value add. For example, Cisco uses Salesforce.com to "virtualize" its CRM for its sales staff, rather than growing and maintaining a CRM solution in house. This is an example of virtualizing a portion of your IT needs.
I'm assuming you're referring to 'cloud'? Yes, it reduces cost; significant cost saving and impact on cash flow. A generic 10 server configuration could mean an out of pocket initial cost of as much as $250K; where the equivalent virtual environment cost approximately $5K per month! But moving to a cloud solution is much more than just a cost saving. Cloud provides you with the capability of elasticity (to scale up/down as needed), broad network access, a reduction in IT complexity, the ability to more easily automate your system, ease of portability, etc. - just to name a few.
Please email me if you or your community member would like to understand more. We could schedule an educational session.
Regards,
Joyce
We offer virtual hosting solutions but our data center is not virtual, it's a tier 4 data center (highest tier). Here are just some of the benefits:
3 Different internet connection backbones
2 Different power grids
Bombproof
All cooling equipment is independently dual-powered, including chillers and Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems
Fault tolerant site infrastructure with electrical power storage and distribution facilities guaranteeing 99.995% availability
Multiple independent distribution paths serving the IT equipments
All IT equipments must be dual-powered and fully compatible with the topology of a site's architecture
24/7 Security Guard
We offer dedicated VPS hosting solutions that are cost effective and green resulting in increased performance. I'd love to discuss this further with you when you have a moment.
Please take a look at our website www.atum.com for more information of what we can do for you.
Virtual hosting environments which can be scaled on demand, or what are commonly known as cloud hosting environments have many advantages:
1. Saving of cost:
a. One does not need to invest in infrastructure and this saves capex.
b. Virtualization optimizes on resources, so you only pay for what you use. e.g. If you have an application stack which needs 20x computation units + each physical server had 9x computation unit capacity. In this case you will need 3 such servers(27 computation units) thereby wasting money as the third server will not be fully utilized. In a cloud environment you could avoid this scenario by using small instances
c. For fluctuating computation needs - e.g. Testing servers, online examinations, news sites, social media properties - you could use cloud hosting to pay for additional hosting/computing resources, which will be delivered instantly on-demand, only for the period that they are used for.
2. Availability of computing resources, on-demand
e.g. An e-commerce site launches a new product and suddenly the visitor traffic increases. In a physical data center environment they will take hours, if not days to put up more servers. In a cloud server environment they can increase their capacity to server and sell products to more visitors, within minutes!
3. Data backup reliability
Image creation and snapshots, which are available in a cloud/virtual scenario, if used properly, could mean a very reliable backup environment.
4. High availability
Cloud hosting provides a very high availability hardware environment, replication of which in a physical data center environment would mean a steeply increased cost.
I repeatedly get this question as to why is not everyone adopting cloud/virtual hosting.
First of all, as Sam mentioned, already millions are adopting the cloud.
Also, factors such as legacy system investment & migration and user education are coming in the way of adoption for a very large majority. Of course, for a small minority of applications and uses, the cloud may not be the best option. But that is a very small fraction. For most applications such as hosting companies, social media sites, content aggregation applications, e-commerce applications and many more, cloud hosting is the way to go.
I hope my answer was of some help.
Cheers!
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