As IT use in schools and colleges increases in sophistication and becomes more prolific, the size and quantity of files grow rapidly, the number of applications multiply and the number of computer systems increase. The same issues are affecting many commercial and public sector organisations – and virtualisation is being adopted widely to address these issues.
The challenge becomes to maintain and improve the performance of IT systems within budgetary limitations, provide better services to end users and solve the logistics of data storage and management.
Traditionally, as networks reach their limits, the answer has been to add more servers, or to plug in external storage devices (such as Network Attached Storage). Both solutions can work well, but may be costly, and risk reducing network performance.
The resultant “server sprawl” is wasteful in terms of expenditure on systems, management complexity, space and power requirements. It can also become inflexible and difficult to backup and secure.
Despite the apparent stretches on IT resources which caused the need for the servers in the first place, experience shows that servers are often under-utilised with perhaps 90%of their computing power not being used. In fact, a similar situation can be witnessed in desktop and notebook systems which spend much of their time with processors being idle.
Virtualisation is a technology which allows many physical machines to be replaced by “virtual machines” which are crammed into one or a few physical systems. Reductions of 10:1 on servers are not uncommon. This reduces the overall spend on hardware, reduces space, power and heat considerations and can also bring many advantages in terms of fast flexible deployment of new applications and the ability to design in disaster recovery and high availability.
Similar technology can be applied to desktop devices such as notebooks and PC’s. “Virtual Desktop” technology allows the server infrastructure to more efficiently provide the computing power which traditionally the desktop devices provided. This can massively prolong the life of existing desktop devices, allow lower spec devices to be purchased in the future and therefore stretch IT budgets further. There are also benefits with regard to security and data backups. Virtual Desktops can also be accessed remotely meaning students can log in and work as if in the classroom, from anywhere with an internet connection.
Stone technical staff work with you to create solutions that match your goals, resources and funding.