03 May Leveraging server virtualization to drive digital transformation
Moving to digital processes can be a difficult undertaking for any business. Employees are asked to leave behind familiar, legacy procedures for new practices that are more efficient, but this invariably encounters some challenges along the way. As more organizations look to go digital, they should look to start with their server infrastructure. Server virtualization can be leveraged to drive digital transformation and improve company operations.
Eliminating comatose servers
The worst thing for a business is to have excess hardware that’s ready to use and drawing power, but isn’t being utilized to its fullest. According to studies from 2015, 30 percent of servers are comatose, and only 20 percent are being fully used at any time, Bloomberg Business week reported. This type of infrastructure wasted $30 billion a year in power, cooling, maintenance and other costs.
Many servers sit comatose or underutilized, wasting money.
Rather than keep this environment, organizations can virtualize servers and drive digital transformation. By establishing virtual machines on available hardware, organizations can better use a server to its fullest capacity and decommission inactive equipment. This will not only save money, it will also open up physical space on the data center floor.
Innovating digital strategy
Industries of all types rely on servers to provide quality experiences to employees and guests alike. Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas built a 2.5 billion square-foot hospital campus, introducing network infrastructure challenges that had to be addressed with a comprehensive digital strategy. According to TechTarget, some hallways ran the length of three football fields, making centralized work stations unfeasible for medical staff.
By using VMware solutions, the hospital created virtualized desktop environments, enabling a roaming desktop profile for each doctor and nurse. This way, a user could tap their badge on a sensor at the workstation and their active desktop would appear. The setup also ensured that logins would only need to be done once in the morning, creating a session that would last for 24 hours, saving time and improving patient care.
“There are still opportunities for VM adoption among small and medium-sized businesses.”
Delivering solutions to all businesses
Server virtualization remains a popular undertaking for many organizations as they look to save costs and improve hardware utilization. In fact, according to TechTarget’s IT Priorities Survey, server virtualization was the number one planned data center infrastructure project for 2017, with 40 percent of respondents noting it as their priority initiative. A number of solutions like cloud and containers are emerging to replace and complement virtual machines, but there are still opportunities for VM adoption among small and medium-sized businesses.
SMBs have largely been delayed on technology adoption due to high costs and unproven reliability, enabling enterprises to benefit from early integration. However, server virtualization platforms not have greater hypervisor reliability and are being offered at lower cost, opening the potential for SMB advantages.
Server virtualization is helping to drive digital transformation in a number of ways. Not only is it more accessible to smaller organizations, it also can help innovate digital strategy and eliminate comatose servers. The benefits of server virtualization can be critical to any business. To find out more about how server virtualization can help bolster your digital transformation efforts, contact Pinnacle Business Systems today.
