Virtualization Software – benefits and server sprawl concerns
Virtualization software helps to run more than two operating systems in one computer, in which one is physical, and others virtually exist. The visualization software will allow one computer or one server to host multiple operating systems. Another terminology for this is the hypervisor. One of the most significant benefits of virtualization is the super fast speed in which the additional capacity can be done, thereby saving on both time and money.
The main benefits of virtual infrastructure
A virtual infrastructure means a structure in one which software replaces the hardware, and it is called a virtual desktop system. Visualization software helps in reducing the overall cost by minimizing the operating cost. It also eliminates downtime and increases productivity, efficiency, responsiveness, and agility. It is beneficial in running all kinds of applications, even on the old operating system (Jain & Choudhary, 2016). For example, if a program only runs on Windows 8 and the computer has been upgraded to Windows 10, virtualization can be used to run Windows 8 on the same computer, and hence the program can run.
Virtualization software allows the computer to create a snapshot, which simply helps in reversing the changes made by returning everything to the earlier state. Moreover, it gives protection from hackers and also saves energy and reduces the physical size of the data centre (Gupta, Srivastava & Chauhan, 2016). The testing of new software and operating systems are also easy on virtualization. The five core components in any virtual architecture are – server, backup, network, storage, and disaster recovery.
Security concerns of server sprawl
Server sprawl is a situation in which information technology resources hosted in a data centre remains underutilized, meaning that the hardware and software applications are absolutely unused, leading to poor productivity and adeptness. Ease of deploying multiple virtual machines has drastically increased the risk and security factors. The common causes of service sprawl are the purchase of a large number of cheap, low-end servers and the practice of devoting servers to a single application (Djenna & Batouche, 2014).
Various techniques have introduced migration of server sprawling like computer virtualization and server consolidation. These techniques help in reducing multiple physical servers and thereby cuts the cost associated with its maintenance and management, where a user can clone a virtual machine or save versions of the same application and operating system for later use. Software resources and physical servers are wasted by virtual sprawl, and it also burdens the information technology with more manual processes and also is a risk to security.
Expected solutions to problems
The virtual world is exposed to the risk of sprawl on a much higher bandwidth as compared to the physical world (Collier, Plassman & Pegah, 2007). There must be an adequate IT control over the virtual machines to have a control on the sprawling. It must figure out which machine is used less and shut them without waiting as they would be unnecessarily consuming network resources and software licenses. The IT can also set up policies limiting the number of virtual machines for a certain time period, like not more than 30 days are allowed for a virtual machine to stay offline. Then at the regular interval, they can audit and recognize these systems and eliminate them. In most of the cases, it has been seen that the IT has trouble tracking such machines; therefore, they should have proper measures so that they have access to all the virtual machine.