Is Virtualization the Right Solution for Your ‘Small’ Business?
Considering Virtualization technology for your small business? While it is the perfect answer to small business IT needs, it may not be a feasible solution if your organization is ‘very small’.
This may seem very demotivating if you are a small organization and if you’re opting for IT Virtualization. But here’s why?
Three aspects to see if Virtualization is the right solution for your small business:
1) Does your organization have a robust IT framework?
While Virtualization has many business benefits including important ones like IT infra cost-savings and reduction on the number of servers, it is important to consider if your business really needs this efficient technology. If your business is dependent on multiple servers, then Virtualization is a solution worth considering. However, when the organization runs on a simple IT infrastructure, then virtualization is completely unnecessary.
“The investment is absolutely worthwhile, provided the virtualization solution is sized to meet the requirements of the business,” says Jason Beiter, Enterprise Solutions Architect, Annese & Associates Inc.
Additionally, mid-sized business with a mid-sized server environment can consider the employment of virtualization to propel business success.
2) How will your IT needs evolve with the growth of your business?
It is true that Virtualization helps you scale with the growing business needs and that tedious tasks can be automated to realign IT-personnel focus to important business growth prospects. In other words, the smart infrastructure technology works to improve IT functionality within an organization.
However, if your current staff and environment are not equipped to work with such technology and are struggling to draw the said benefits for the organization, then Virtualization is not for your business.
3) Is there a Virtualization system tailored to meet your needs?
The answer is Yes! but with its own limitations. Majority of the platforms are designed to cater to the needs of large companies, which makes it difficult for small companies to identify ones that fit their needs. However, Virtualization can be employed at a smaller budget too. There are a number of small-business centric virtualization apps including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V & Citrix XenServer.
Currently, VMware leads the virtualization industry but what is alluring about Hyper-V is that it caters to small business needs with its affiliation to the Windows OS. Citrix XenServer is the less-popular one owing to its deployment limitation, which is specific to Citrix environments and products.
Other solutions to employ virtualization for small businesses includes employing a virtualization service that offers basic features and employing free and low-cost options. These options can include embedding virtualization features in the OS. Open-source solutions give small businesses access to a complete feature set, however, these open-source services entail a community-support model which may not be able to give a correct assessment in time of crisis.
It is important for small businesses to be clear of their Service Level Agreements (SLAs). They need to tap on the right Virtualization solutions provider, who do not restrict them in a specific model and keep the technology from evolving with business needs.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned factors are very important to consider. Technology can be very helpful if put to the right use. On the flip-side, if your small business is unable to harness the potential of such technologies, they have the potential to affect day-to-day business operations.
IT Virtualization can be employed to your small business but not if you’re already using simplified technology that is easy to use and rely on. Yes, it is worth considering only of your server maintenance and numbers begin to creep beyond your budget capacity.