Free Virtualization Software for Windows 10

Free Virtualization Software for Windows

13 September 2017, by Netzen, in Free software, IT Support, Windows, Comments off

What are the benefits of virtualization?

1) Save on costs

As you are able to use one piece of hardware to run several operating systems, you are saving significant money on hardware. Not only this but your carbon footprint is reduced, so you are saving money when it comes to electricity bills. Being able to fit multiple operating systems on one physical device allows you to share resources such as CPU and memory accurately and efficiently. Thanks to the fact that virtual operating systems are easily backed up and restore, you will also make significant savings on labour costs when it comes to rolling out prebuilt images and restoring backups

2) Increase productivity

Having the ability to spin up multiple operating systems quickly on a single machine allows IT admins to be more productive, test environments and not spend time installing/reinstalling and swapping out physical hardware to work on projects or test environments. Using virtualization allows you to be more agile and efficient as a business as you are able to do more with less.

3) Increased uptime

Virtualization allows for snapshots of operating systems and therefore production environments can be restored much quicker than on a traditional single server installation. Software such as VMWare’s vMotion, DRS and VMware high availability (VMHA) all result in servers remaining online longer and aim at minimising downtime.

4) Cloud virtualization

Thanks to the developments and progression in virtualization software, service provides like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure exist, which allow you to manage virtual servers on the internet. Cloud virtualization is now the most popular way of running high performance/high availability production environments. It is also very cost effective for businesses as most cloud virtualization providers charge based on ‘instance uptime/boot time’, so if you don’t need an environment running 24/7 you can simply choose to schedule when the device is powered on to save on costs.

5) Virtual labs

Being able to create images allows one to test environments and plan upgrades/migrations before committing changes to production environments. This can help IT admins eliminate potential mistakes prior to making production environment changes that could cost money should something go wrong. Complex setups involving Exchange, Active Directory or other critical infrastructure services can be tested, planned and then finally pushed out live, knowing all will work as tested on the virtual environment.

Virtualisation-infographic