¶ … Virtualization
Server virtualization technologies have quickly become the default platform for today's datacenters. IT organizations are putting in place formal virtualization deployment policies and are strongly incenting application owners to use virtualized servers rather than offer standalone, dedicated servers on a per-application basis. It is also important to understand exactly what is meant by this virtualization. The term "virtualization" in computing has several different aspects. In general virtualization creates an interface which hides the actual hardware that is being used. This may be done to simplify user interface or to provide better or multiple uses of computing resources. One of the most popular examples is VMware. VMware virtualizes the complete PC. Several copies of the virtual machine can run on one server, each having its own OS. This is an example of platform virtualization. (Rouse, 2007).
File virtualization is another aspect of virtualization in computing. File virtualization creates a user perception that the enterprise file resources exist centrally on Global Names Space (GNS). File virtualization hides the actual servers and its directory structure from the user. The GNS can be customized based on the organization's requirements. The adoption of server virtualization in network storage environments has been driven by cost reductions and management simplifications.
There are some significant benefits of file virtualization. These include: GNS hides actual servers and the directory structures complexity, tiered storage and archiving, centralized file policy management and centralized backups/restores. Virtualization can increase a particular business' flexibility within the industry. This is so because it allows firms to be faster to deploy new products and serves and better equipped to incorporate offsite contracts and meetings. This process also reduces mundane deployment processes for businesses wishing to launch new ideas into the market. File server virtualization puts to good use the idea of being everywhere at once.
Disaster recovery is quite a bit easier when the file server is virtualized. With curent snapshots of the virtual machines, these machines can quickly get back up and running. And should disaster strike the data center itself, one can always move those virtual machines elsewhere so long as you can re-create the network addressing scheme. Having that level of flexibility means a disaster recovery plan will be easier to enact and will have a much higher success rate. With a move to virtual machines, you are that much closer to enjoying a full-blown cloud environment. This technology may even reach the point where onecan deploy VMs to and from your data center to create a powerful cloud-based infrastructure. But beyond the actual virtual machines, that virtualized technology gets you closer to a cloud-based mindset, making the migration all the more easy (Rouse 2007).
There are also some significant disadvantages to file server virtualization. It must be accepted that when utilizing this technology that the complexity of the system will definitely increase. There will be more steps involved at all levels of development perhaps causing more startup costs and failures. File server virtualizations are a hackers dream. Anonymity can be easily provided for with this approach making it that much easier for a security breach.
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