Running Title: Virtualization 1

Virtualization

Joshua Ferrill

Erik Lindwall

Jared Lively

Mark Weiss

Virtualization 2

Executive Summary

There are many trends and new technologies changing how information technology is

used within an organization. There has been a focus on information technology departments to

consolidate and decrease expenses. One of the technologies that is allowing for consolidation of

computer resources is virtualization. There are many different types of virtualization and only a

few will be covered in this paper.

There are many benefits to virtualization along with just as many risks. Many

companies have been moving resources into virtualization but not all companies have found the

rewards they have been looking for. Not all companies are the same and based on their business

operations and processes, they may find different types of virtualization will have more promise.

Some companies will decide on virtual servers and computers, other will use virtual applications

and processes, each may need a different approach.

Virtualization has help with the flatting of the world’s markets. Smaller companies can

complete and using computing power that was once only found in the largest of enterprises.

Companies will need to decide on where and how virtualizations will be used within their

organizations. With the many variations of virtualization, companies will find some will not

work with their business objectives. There will be others that will create their own ways to use

virtualization. It does appear though that the benefits do outweigh the risks of virtualization.

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Paper Purpose and Scope

Organizational resources are become more scares while competition has profoundly

increased among organizations. Organizations are constantly looking to cut cost while becoming

more efficient. Organizations consider many options that include downsizing, outsourcing,

reorganization, and information’s systems to name just a few. In this paper, we are going to

explore how information systems can improve an organization and the cost and benefits of

implementing information systems technology. However, there are many types and sources of

information systems we could explore therefore we will be focusing on a specific topic within

information systems. In this paper, we will discuss the various applications of virtualization and

how they provide benefits that outweigh the limitations and risks associated with its use inside

and outside of an organization.

Literature Review/Investigation

So what exactly is meant by virtualization in information systems? When first hearing

the term, one might think about something that attempts emulate real life. Although this is not

exactly what the term means in information systems, it does have one thing right that

virtualization does attempt to emulate something. Virtualization is “Virtualizing the physical

resources of a computing system to achieve improved degrees of sharing and utilization”

according to Neiger, Santoni, Leung, Rodgers and, Uhlig (2008, p. 167). These physical

resources can include hardware, software, data systems, memory, network, storage, and

operating systems. Virtualization may sound like some foreign technology that only a few

people have used but virtualization has been around for about 25 years. In fact, most people

Virtualization 4

have experienced virtualization with applications such as Google maps or automated lowest price

online shopping (Virtualization in Education, 2007).

Virtualization within organizations includes virtual computers, desktop virtualization, and

server virtualization. Virtual computers are use software to emulate an actually computer while

the hardware may include a large mainframe running many different software programs

(Virtualization in Education, 2007). This is different from the traditional personal computer

because many different operating systems and users can connect to the virtual computer where a

personal computer can only run one operating system for one user. Desktop virtualization is

similar to a virtual computer however, desktop virtualization puts the traditional computer

desktop on a server that can be accessed anywhere (Virtualization in Education, 2007). An

example of this is college information systems that allow students to log into their own desktop

anywhere on a campus computer. Finally, Server virtualization can create multiple servers on

one hardware device (Virtualization in Education, 2007). Instead of having multiple servers,

server virtualization creates a cost effective and simpler hardware set up of servers within an

organization.

Benefits and Challenges of Virtualization

Introduction

Virtualization within an organization’s information system provides many benefits but also

come with many challenges. Virtualization is an important part of the utilization of a system. It

can be used to re-think the way data centers operate as a whole or can simplify your sever

infrastructure. Server virtualization has three main general benefits that can be applied to almost

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any organization and the efficient utilization of their systems: consolidation, reliability, and

security.

Discussion

In many organizations, the task performed by servers for physical computers take up a lot

of computing power or space. The cost of running servers has not increased, but their power and

capabilities have. This creates a waste and low returns for organizations on the money invested

in servers. (Barrett & Kipper, 2010) Through consolidation, operating systems and their

workloads are combined and place in a proper order on shared servers with more than enough

available resources to satisfy user demand. This allows servers to run at a higher capacity than

typical 5-25% servers are utilized now. Giving organizations are large cost- benefit. This can

decrease the overall number of servers being used, saving storage space and computing

capabilities. Many organizations use many different types of operating systems, for instance

most companies use Windows 7 or one of Microsoft’s operating systems. Some organizations,

especially larger ones, will run several operating systems to fit their business needs.

Virtualization built on top of x86 architecture can host multiple environments of operating

systems. Multiple operating systems, like UNIX, Linux, or different versions of Windows, can

be consolidated on the same server with virtualization. (Barrett and Kipper, 2010)

Especially in today’s day and age, reliability has become a must have and major concern

for everyone. Organizations that are investing heavily in their server infrastructure have to make

sure company business applications remain online and uninterrupted. However, they are seeing

their costs to maintain these servers steadily rise. Virtualization technologies address this

situation by providing isolation between their virtual running machines. If there is a defect on

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one virtual machine, the other virtual machines remain unaffected, even if they are running on

identical severs. Virtualization allows the other virtual machines to continue running as if they

are unaware of the defect. Virtualization creates an environment where it seems as though each

application is running on its own server. This isolation though does not stop flexibility though,

imagine a situation where you have in an organization has three servers where one is running a

client/server application, one is running the batch processes to close out the day’s business and

one is running for data maintenance over the weekend. If three servers are sitting there un-used

it creates a waste and under usage of three very expensive pieces of equipment. Virtualization

allows you to streamline this whole process by a single logical physical partition or isolated

section to be allocated as needed. The part-time partitions allow IT in organizations to utilize

their servers full capabilities, running many of their main business processes in an efficient and

effective manner, minimize costs and maximize server capability. (Barrett & Kipper, 2010)

Security enhancement is another key benefit of virtualization. If a particular isolated

partition is compromised, or assume corrupt, It can be immediately isolated from the other

partitions. This prevents the problem from being extended further to other partitions. Such

measures can be taken to even remove the very resources that the partition relies on to function.

CPU cycles can be reduced, as well as network access and systems can be halted all together if

needed. Such security measures would be very difficult to perform on a physical server. (Barrett

& Kipper, 2010)

Server virtualization seems great and would be practical to almost any organization. It

does however come with challenges. Usually server settings are managed by a switch. IT

organizations can utilize the switch to monitor the traffic on the server. When an organization

Virtualization 7

implements virtualization, management loses the capability to monitor what goes on between a

single server and a virtual machine. The main loss here is that while virtualization will provided

many necessary features, they lose the ability for the server and server traffic to be properly

watched and managed. (Taylor and Metzler, 2009)

Collapsing multiple severs or physical devices into software affect all the people and

processes supporting the data centers. Virtualization projects cross many separate, but inter-

related information technology departments of an organization. Many people in different

information technology departments like security, storage, networking, and servers will have to

work cross functionally to achieve the objectives of a project. Depending on the size of the

organization, this could have a large effect on IT organizational structures and responsibilities.

(Huff, 1999)

Beginning a virtualization project takes a large financial commitment. Getting executive

backing on the financial undertaking of setting up virtualization can prove very difficult,

especially since most organizational executives are not technology savvy. The executives must

see the potential costs savings upon completion and show there unequivocal support for the

project, particularly the CEO. It is critical that the entire organization understands the

advantages of and buys-in to the project. (Huff, 1999)

Analysis

Virtualization is an interesting and limitless way to streamline data, reduce costs, increase

speed, enhance security, and relate quality information. These benefits though do come with

inherent risk and challenges though of: data management, people management, cost benefits of

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implementations, and executive buy in. Weighing these benefits versus challenges will depend

solely on the size or the organization, adequacy of current information systems, knowledge of IT

employees and organizational initiatives.

Types of Virtualization

Introduction

There are several types of virtualization in information technology today. The most

commonly referred to one is server technology. Many people think of virtualization in this way,

it is described as the separating of a computer resource into multiple entities. In fact, though it

can do just the opposite as well. Storage, network and application virtualization are used to

present multiple entities in a single virtual entity. (Dittner & Rule, 2007)

Discussion

Server virtualization is the most common in information technology today. Server

virtualization implementations are present for all CPU platforms and architectures, the most

popular being x86 and IA-32. There are four types of server virtualization: full virtualization,

paravirtualization, operating systems virtualization and native virtualization. Full virtualization

is when every form of software that can be run on a server, can be run on a virtual machine.

(Dittner & Rule, 2007) In paravirtualization, the operating system is reconfigured before being

installed on to a virtual machine. This interface between the operating system and the virtual

machine will differ a bit from the underlying hardware. This lowers overhead costs and

enhances the systems performance that might have been under worked in full virtualization.

(Techtarget.whatis.com, 2011) Operating systems virtualization is type of server virtualization

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technology, which works at the operating system layer. The server and the operating system are

virtualized into multiple partitions, where each partition is replicating an actual server.

Operating systems virtualizations tend be quicker or at native speed, they do support all

operating systems function that the server can. (Dittner & Rule, 2007) Native virtualization is

the newest type of server virtualization on the x 86 architecture set-ups. Native virtualization or

hybrid virtualization is a mix of full virtualization and paravirtualization with input/ output

accelerated techniques. Like full virtualization, operating systems can be installed without

configuration or modification. Native virtualization also has the highest CPU memory and

input/output performance of all the x86 virtual machines (Dittner & Rule, 2007).

Storage virtualization provides high performance storage systems for users. In the

simplest form, storage virtualization is a combining of physical disks drives in to a single unit

that exists on a server and operating system. The adoption of storage area networks or SAN has

taken the components of storage virtualization a bit further. Now, without changing any

operating system code, organizations can share storage between multiple servers, even though

each server acts like it has its own dedicated storage. (Dittner & Rule, 2007).

Similar to storage virtualization, companies producing network hardware have been

around the virtualization business for some time, although they are not always recognized as a

form of virtualization. The three main types of network virtualization are Virtual LAN (VLAN),

Virtual IP (VIP), and Virtual Private Network (VPN). VLAN is a is a group of virtual hosts,

regardless of actual physical site, that communicate as if they are connected to the same

broadcast domain. A VLAN have the same characteristics as a (LAN), but are created to provide

separation services that are usually provided by routers. VIP is a virtual address not connected to

Virtualization 10

a specific computer or network interface card. They are commonly used to replace connection

redundancy. VPN is a private network used to communicate in confidentiality over a public

network. It is commonly used by organizations to allow employees to remote into their

organization’s network via the internet from anywhere a connection can be established. (Dittner

& Rule, 2007)

Application virtualization, commonly referred to as software virtualization, is a newbie in

the virtualization world. Application virtualization is a new way of managing software. It can

remove application conflicts, reduce rollouts of applications, and run multiple types of an

application. Instead of using traditional methods of software package installation procedures,

application virtualization separates the relationship between applications, operating systems, and

servers to place applications and data via virtual software packages. (Dittner & Rule, 2007)

Analysis

Server virtualization is a very powerful tool that can lower costs, reduce server capacity, and

enhance the sharing of information from multiple systems. However, there are other

virtualizations methods that can be used and have just as large of an impact for an organization.

When implemented by an organization, they must first choose the type that will be the most

efficient and effective for their organization. If properly implemented and utilized by an

organization the benefits could be monumental.

Synthesis

Virtual Machine in More Detail

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Probably the most common and widely used forms of virtualization are virtual machines, also

known as VM. VM is a program that creates a software environment that runs inside, but

separately from the current operating system and uses the same resources. (Virtual Machines

and VMWare, Part 1, 2011) This allows for testing of applications without losing the primary

operating system if something goes wrong, as well as protection from external threats like

viruses. Since the VM is its own file, any corruption that may occur is only to that file and

cannot go outside of it. It can also allow multiple programs on different platforms to run

concurrently on the same physical machine.

There are three main uses for VM. The simplest one is to run a second operating system from

within the current one. For example, you have a Windows 95 program that will not run on

Windows 7. By using VM, you can run Windows 95, load up the program all while still within

Windows 7. The second usage is to actually boot from the VM and run Windows 95 this way.

In doing this, the actual operating system is isolated from the VM OS, as everything that goes in

is contained in a single VM file. This is an optimal use for testing programs on multiple

platforms, or testing in an unsecured environment. The third use is on servers. By running

multiple instances of VM, one server can actually do the job of several and all the virtual

resources are available for each of the dedicated server applications needing to be run even if

they run simultaneously. (The Different Types of Virtualization, 2011)

It is easy to see where this type of virtualization can come in handy, especially for

programmers and IT professionals. Testing software can easily be done on a test server under

multiple platforms without disrupting the workings of the server. Another benefit is backup and

recovery. Since the VM file is one file, it can be saved to a flash drive, copied to another

Virtualization 12

machine, and transferred there thus minimizing the amount of time involved in implementation.

A corrupt file can be easily deleted and recovered via snapshot, or the entire file recreated

relatively simply without having to wipe the entire machine and starting over.

The thing to remember is that virtual servers are just that, virtual. Therefore, security settings

on the host machine have nothing to do with the virtual machines. For example, the database

administrator has security access to the physical server, but would have to have an addition

password to be able to access each and any virtual servers that run on the physical machine.

One of the other benefits to using VM is that the old way of doing things required that each

major application required its own server. Email was handled by one server. Accounting and

billing software on another server. Corporate Intranet is handled by another server. Supply

chain management and logistics are handled on another server, etc. Doing things the old way

required four servers, and lots of infrastructure to keep them running, cool, and operating at peak

efficiency, while the entire time each server was only operating at ten percent capacity (for

example).

This is where the use of VM can come in extremely handy. All four servers’ programs could

be consolidated and run on one physical server without loss of functionality and speed. The

systems could communicate within their respected VM environment, and once configured

properly, between themselves and use less bandwidth. The host operating system would

recognize virtual network cards between each of the virtual servers and communications between

them would be transparent and actually faster since there is no need for the information to travel

across physical networks. Virtual Machines and VMWare, Part 1, 2011)

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Ultimately, the consolidation onto one physical server from four makes perfect sense. It

saves time and money involved in maintaining multiple physical systems, electricity costs of

running and cooling the equipment, and actually lowers infrastructure bandwidth, ultimately

making the existing network a little faster. All the while, this still allows total access to all

applications by those that are set up securely to use them. The only limitations are the hardware

and infrastructure needed to handle the load. An increase in server memory, processing speed,

hard drive size, or Ethernet speed may be required, but these upgrades are usually cheaply

implemented as opposed to the purchase of another entire server. (Oracle VM VirtualBox, 2011)

An additional benefit to using virtual machines is the snapshot function that was mentioned

earlier. A snapshot is essentially a backup of the existing contents on the server. In the event

there is a hardware failure or corruption, the contents of the virtual server are preserved and can

be brought back to the previous state whenever needed. This saves time and money in the long

run. Anyone who has ever installed a new operating system knows it takes a long time to install

one from a cd, then all the drivers have to be installed, then all the applications need installed,

and finally user specific configurations have to be made. With these snapshots, the virtual server

can be migrated to another machine with the current configurations intact. In the case of a

hardware failure on the physical machine, the time saved in restoring from a snapshot are

significantly less, and the snapshot can be restored to any machine that has the resources

available to run the VM. (VMware, 2011)

In conclusion, VM technology is one of the most popular and best known uses of

virtualization today. The main benefits of VM are they allow any machine to run any operating

system as long as the processor and memory requirements are met, and there is enough free hard

Virtualization 14

drive space for the applications to be run. Server migrations take significantly less time and

money when using VM as opposed to traditional methods migrating from one physical server to

another. Backups are easily restored from snapshots and can be transferred simply and quickly

to any machine that fulfills the usage requirements. VM allows for consolidation of programs

that have to run on different servers onto one physical server, thus saving more time and money,

while still keeping security in place for the individual programs.

Cloud Computing

When one thinks about virtualization outside of an organization’s information system

infrastructure, a likely candidate would be cloud computing. Now one might want to include a

definition of cloud computing to further elaborate on what it stands for. Multiple journal articles

stated that there was no common standard or definition for cloud computing (Sultan, 2011). One

group of authors mentioned that there are as many definitions as there are commentators on the

subject of cloud computing. Along with that statement, they pointed out that the National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition is nearly 800 words long (Marston, Li,

Bandyopadhyay, Zhang, Ghalsasi, 2011). One of the better definitions or descriptions was

referring to more on what cloud computing does and less on what it is.

“The promise of cloud computing is to deliver all the functionality of existing information

technology services (and in fact enable new functionalities that are hitherto infeasible) even as it

dramatically reduces the upfront costs of computing that deter many organizations from

deploying many cutting edge IT services (Marston et al., 2011).”

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Two forces or trends in the information system community have pushed cloud computing to

the forefront and made it a technology that has garnered the attention of an industry (Marston et

al., 2011). IT efficiency has increased the use of virtualization inside an organization; it has also

increased its likely use outside of an organization. With the move towards maximizing the

utilization of computing resources, cloud computing has seen the scalable use of hardware and

software resources that allow for more efficient management of computing power (Marston et

al., 2011).

Another trend in the IS world is business agility. Cloud computing has become a competitive

tool allowing organizations to participate at greater levels with less investment. It acts as a

competitive tool through rapid deployment, parallel batch processing, and the use of information

in real time (Marston et al., 2011). The cloud has given companies additional capabilities of

adjusting quickly and scaling their resources to match a changing economy. Companies that use

the cloud, are not limited to physical hardware and do not have to invest additional capital to

increase computational power. The cloud acts as a service (Lillard, Garrison, Schiller, Steele,

2010) and can be scaled or decreased to meet the changing requirements of a company.

Collective intelligence is also a key benefit or element to the cloud. Cloud applications have

the ability to know the current activities of a community and use that knowledge to make it

better. Amazon uses this feature to introduce books that people may find interesting based on

other people shopping within its website. While many cloud applications and services do not

currently focus on using collective intelligence, there will be likely a trend towards its use

(Lillard et al., 2010).

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Cloud computing has become an established commodity in today’s business environment. A

research group expects cloud computing to be a $150 billion business by 2014 and according to

another group, $100 billion will be spent by small and medium businesses during the same year

(Marston et al., 2011). With increased use of the cloud, there will be greater number of

innovations and changes to information systems. There will be fewer costs, space requirements

and less of an investment in infrastructure to operate a business. A company will not be limited

to a physical location; they could access their cloud resources anywhere in the world (Barnett &

Kipper, 2010).

Information technology changes at a quick place. It seems that there are always additional

costs from ordering updates to software or a need to upgrade an OS. In the current economic

times, cloud computing does address more than a few financial concerns (Sultan 2011). A big

advantage to operating in a cloud is that it lowers the costs of a company to enter a market.

Cloud computing is a service that can scale depending on the need. Many businesses have peak

times or high volume sales that happen only a few times per year. When additional resources are

not needed, they can be scaled down and the company will not have to pay for unused resources

(Marston et al., 2011).

Many small and medium businesses have already moved to the cloud and more will follow.

Companies have shown that they can compete in business and succeed with the use of cloud.

Startups like Facebook, YouTube, Tripit, and Mint were all able to succeed because cloud

computing promotes innovation while decreasing the cost for computational resources (Marston

et al., 2011).

Virtualization 17

The small and medium enterprises or businesses will likely find the transition to the cloud

easier and more common then large enterprises. There are a number of reasons why a large

enterprise should not move to the cloud as of yet. One of the more easy reasons is that they may

not find it to be not cost-effective. The size that larger enterprises operate their information

systems resources and data centers could result is significantly lower costs compared to the use

of a cloud (Marston et al., 2011).

There are also security and legal concerns with using the cloud for enterprise activities. A

few of these concerns are network availability, business continuity, security incidents, and the

lost of physical control (Marston et al., 2011). Network availability is just that, is the network

available. If a company has no access to any of their data because it is stored in cloud offsite, it

is no better than if they close their doors. They will be unable to do business until the network

becomes available again.

Business continuity is very important to large enterprises. Companies need assurance that the

operations are protected and will remain functional during a disaster. Many companies demand

service level agreements with uptimes greater than 99.95% and many cloud providers do not

offer such agreements (Marston et al., 2011). Many cloud providers also lack the resources to

provide for the need support during the investigation of a security incident (Winkler, 2011). The

cloud provider may also lack additional resources that are required for the performing of an audit

or the protection of the chain of evidence may be required to meet regulations for enterprises to

operate in a given county (Winkler, 2011).

The last item mentioned was the lack of control over a company’s data (Winkler, 2011).

There are many companies that do not want to give up control over a company asset, but there

Virtualization 18

are also ones that are required by law to keep control over their data. The European Union data

regulation states that a company is required to know and guarantee that their data is located on a

specified set of servers. With cloud computing, a company’s data could be placed among many

computers that are all members of a gird network (Marston et al., 2011).

Large enterprises do see the benefits to using cloud computing and a few have worked out

solutions to many of their issues with using a cloud. IBM built their own private cloud to

achieve the benefits of cloud computing. IBM created “Blue Cloud” project to address their

concerns over security and legal liability. Private clouds are a growing trend in cloud computing

(Barnett & Kipper, 2010).

The Future of Virtualization

In the future, visualization will play a more vital role in information systems as the

technologies increases and new ways of using virtualization are developed. Virtualization in the

future will include hardware Hypervisors, anti-forensics, mobile visualization, and autonomic

computing according to Coates, Jarrat (1989), and Stokes (2009). Hardware hypervisors are the

virtualization of hardware components opposed to software. The basic idea behind hardware

hypervisors is that right now most virtualization within hardware is done by some specific

software application. Therefore, only the programs that have virtualization software included in

the program or operating system can be virtualized and some software can only run on certain

hardware. Therefore hardware hypervisors will allow the actual hardware the have virtualization

built into its motherboard allowing more programs and compatibility and the ability to boot any

operating system. In essence, moving hypervisor from strictly software applications to the

Virtualization 19

physical hardware could potentially improve performance, security, and open up more

virtualization options (Coates, Jarrat (1989), and Stokes (2009)).

The next part of virtualization in the future is anti-forensics or an attempt to eliminate

evidence to improve privacy and security (Coates, Jarrat (1989), and Stokes (2009)).

Virtualization will enable anti-forensics since the applications will be considered throwaway and

wiped from the systems according to Coates, Jarrat (1989), and Stokes (2009). Therefore, data

from virtualization will not be used as forensic evidence since it will no longer exist.

Virtualization will also affect mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet devices as they

increase in popularity in the future. One application of this is being able to choose which

operating software you want on your phone. For instance, you might buy a Samsung phone but

then be able to choose a windows operating software, blackberry or android when the phone

starts up states Coates, Jarrat (1989), and Stokes (2009). In addition to more options, the mobile

device would be able to run multiple virtual machines, which would decrease the processing

power need to run the mobile device making it more efficient. Therefore, what once took three

processors to operate would only require two, which would free up space and increase battery

life. In addition, running virtual software on mobile devices will allow employers to issue one

device that run the organizations virtual software and then be able to run the employees personal

software. This would aide in convergence of mobile devices since most employees have a

dedicated mobile device for work and have to carry a personal cell phone (Coates, Jarrat (1989),

and Stokes (2009)).

Autonomic Computing

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Finally, as cloud computing becomes more popular and more complex, organizations will

have to find a way to organize the cloud according to Kharif (2008). One solution explained by

Kharif (2008) is called autonomic computing or systems that will be able to regulate themselves

like an autonomic nervous system. In addition, this functionality will allow computers to heal

themselves and decrease human Maintenance time on these systems. Since this technology is,

still years away it is not exactly clear how autonomic computing will work or how it will be

implemented (Kharif, 2008). However according to IBM as systems become increasing complex

humans will no longer be able to managing these systems and a new form of computing will

have to be implemented to control these systems. Although it is not clear, exactly what extent

autonomic computing will have on information systems it will likely take place in servers,

storage, software, and virtualization (Kharif 2008).

Disaster Relief/ Planning

Virtualization has many uses as we have already discusses. However, one the most

important uses of virtualization may be in the used of server virtualization for disaster

preparedness. As organizations begin to rely more on information systems in their daily business

they must be prepared for unexpected outages in their information systems. Traditionally

implementing disaster preparedness was a costly business since purchasing backup hardware was

the most popular solution. However, virtualization has enable organizations to run multiple

servers on one hardware platform and has enable organizations to outsource their virtual systems

to another server in the case of a disaster according to Pregmon (2008). This would still enable a

company to operate if something happened to their physical server or system

Virtualization 21

Business Continuity will play a major role when planning and using virtualization.

Planning for all the different aspects of business continuity from system failures to site disasters

could and likely will benefit for virtualization (Olzak, T., Boomer, J., Keefer, R., Sabovik, J.

2010). Virtualization simplifies backup and recovery. Standard practice for backup and

recovery is to perform a file level backup. All the important files and those needed to recover a

system will be part of a backup (Hoopes 2009). The recovery of a file level backup could still be

dependent on hardware and may require rebuilding an operating system to work on replacement

or new hardware (Olzak, T., et al. 2010).

Virtualization adds another level of backup, the system itself can be part of the backup.

Virtualized systems are not hardware dependent; they are a series of files that contain the

configuration and settings of the virtual hardware. This adds incredible flexibility and portability

to virtual systems (Hoopes, 2009). Virtualization breaks the dependency that physical hardware

has on restoring systems. System can be moved from one virtual hosting server to another with

little to no downtime, which adds greater portability and quicker recovery (Olazk, T., et al.

2010).

Conclusion

Virtualization is not an answer for every system and process within an organization

(Olazk, T., et al. 2010). An organization should consider it and see if the benefits outweigh the

costs and risks. There are many types of virtualizations and just as many ways of using those

types inside and outside of an organization. Virtualization has given greater capabilities to

companies that have not been able to complete against larger companies who have greater

resources. Companies may find that they need to move to virtualization to remain completive

Virtualization 22

and deal with new players in a fast changing market. Other companies may find that to meet

their business needs ranging from reducing operational costs of computing to disaster recovery

will find that virtualization may be required to meet those needs.

Many companies ranging from the small to the very large could and will find varying

uses for virtualization. Each company will have to decide on how to apply virtualization to their

business model. Virtualization has changed and will continue to change how information

technology supports, improves, and directs business operations.

Virtualization 23

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