Are you looking to build an IT infrastructure that will allow your business to scale easily, with low operating costs? Do you find yourself limited by server space or dealing with high energy bills?
Network virtualization is the new gold standard for networking, adopted by businesses of all sizes around the world. Virtualization allows businesses to reduce operating costs, automate network and security protocols, and create a foundation for future growth, by consolidating their existing network hardware into a single virtual network.
At Megawire, we will help our clients set up and manage virtualized networks as part of our full suite of managed IT services. In this article, we’ll go over the fundamentals of network virtualization and explain how virtualized network services can help your business in a number of different ways.
What is Network Virtualization?
Network virtualization (NV) is the process of consolidating the physical hardware of a network into a single, virtual network. This is typically done by using software containers on a single, physical, host machine to run multiple, virtual, guest machines.
Virtualization allows businesses to simulate various pieces of traditional hardware, such as servers, storage devices, or network resources. The virtualized components function exactly the same way that traditional hardware would function—with added benefits to the user and the business.
How Network Virtualization Can Help
The growing demands placed on IT infrastructure in today’s professional world have made network virtualization an increasingly popular solution for businesses ranging from small to enterprise-level.
Virtualization provides a great option for companies that use outsourced IT services, anticipate mergers or acquisitions, or have to segregate IT departments, due to regulatory compliance.
Key Benefits of Network Virtualization
1. Reduced Hardware & Power Consumption
A clear impact of network virtualization will be the reduction of physical hardware in your office space. By consolidating multiple servers and storage devices onto a single host machine, you can dramatically cut down on the space and costs required to run your network efficiently.
In addition, the reduced hardware requirements will have a corresponding impact on your power consumption. If you are looking to become a green business, lower your energy bills, and adopt more environmentally-friendly practices, then using network virtualization is a practical way to achieve this.
2. Automated Management
Maintaining a physical network can place a significant burden on your IT department—a burden that can be greatly reduced with network virtualization.
Network virtualization allows your team to easily automate network and security protocols, ensuring that they are applied across an entire network infrastructure. Network provisioning—the delivery of new services to network users—is also greatly simplified with a virtual environment, and the same is true of troubleshooting.
There is no need to apply time-consuming manual security updates to each server, install new cabling to extend network provisioning, or troubleshoot individual machines. Management and control of the virtual network is consolidated in a single physical location.
3. Improved Scalability
If your business is looking to grow, network virtualization provides a quick and easily scalable solution. Your IT infrastructure can be a major barrier to growth—but this doesn’t have to be the case.
Network virtualization allows business to respond to market demands with agility, expanding the services demanded by a specific group of users or providing new services as your business evolves.
Featured Vendor: VMware
VMware is a leading provider of virtualization software and service in North America, offering a digital foundation to power the apps, services, and experiences that are transforming the world.
VMware NSX is a network virtualization and security platform that enables the creation of entire networks in software. A variety of NSX editions are available, based on the specific needs of your business. Learn more about VMware’s NSX virtualization software here.
At Megawire, we partner with VMware, Microsoft, and other top providers of virtualization software to deliver cutting-edge technology to our clients. Our virtualized network services help businesses to reduce costs, scale for growth, and better manage their IT services.
If you are interested in learning how a network virtualization solution can help your business, contact the Megawire team today.
