Benefits of Building Multi-Hypervisor Environments
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The world of IT is very dynamic. Therefore, when companies plan long-term activities based on their (proven and used) solutions, often a small thing such as changing the licensing system, removing functionalities, or problems with integration in the new release may derail the budget and interrupt the smooth operation of the company.
Change is the only constant. Agreeing to vendor lock-in at the software level, with no real, tested alternative, is a conscious risk. The same principle applies to hosting systems, CRM, automation, or generally managing IT infrastructure in companies, and the case of our interest – virtualization.
Today’s companies that recognize these problems and dependencies face unique challenges:
- Heterogeneous data centers.
- Lack of centralized management tools.
- Organizational and technological islands where it is difficult to build and maintain applications.
- Lack of centralized backup and disaster recovery solutions.
Another challenge faced by administrators is vendor lock-in, which can lead to inefficiencies and lost opportunities to extend virtualization by matching the right hypervisor at the right cost level to the right business needs.
Redundancy or new quality?
Is relying on just one hypervisor a good strategy today? When VMware – a virtualization and cloud computing software vendor – introduced the new VRAM licensing, it became unprofitable for many companies to invest in software and maintain their current infrastructure. So it’s no surprise that the most common reason to run a dual hypervisor environment is to save money.
VMware vSphere has a well-deserved reputation among users, but it is not the cheapest solution. Of course, some companies are willing to pay more for proven software stability, but environments with multiple different hypervisors are still a must for many companies. A perfect example are financial and banking sectors, energy trading companies, telco, and hosting services, and many more where the demand for diversification is almost a necessity.
But it is not everything. Are commercial virtualizers worth using for all workloads? After all, test servers are typically used in update cycles or sandbox environments. They don’t require a top-notch virtualization platform anyway, right? Moreover, the additional virtualization platform saves more advanced resources for critical production applications.
Opponents of such a solution claim that it introduces unnecessary chaos to the server room and may also cause problems related to the proper protection of virtual machines. However, contrary to popular belief, the game is worth the candle. As a rule, the servers operating in the company support various workloads: production, test, and critical business processes. Consequently, they play different roles in organizations.
For systems that may remain offline for a while – such as test servers – a robust open source hypervisor will do the trick, which does not need to implement advanced functionality in high-end solutions.
Backup for multiple hypervisors
One of the key issues is the proper protection of virtual machines and the possibility of quick recovery after a disaster. Analysts estimate that about 90% companies use virtual servers on which critical applications are often installed as programs are moved to virtualized environments, the requirements for their protection and quick disaster recovery increase.
Storware’s strategy differs from competitors who narrow their products to a few of the most used hypervisors. It is a very convenient option for companies that intend to enrich their infrastructure with another virtualizer or replace it.
With the versatility of Storware Backup and Recovery, businesses don’t need to search for new backup tools for commercial and open-source virtualization solutions. Storware has developed a niche in the market by meeting the expectations of companies that have implemented free or cheaper tools than VMware and Microsoft’s virtualizers. While companies like to use two hypervisors, they prefer single solutions in the case of backup software.
Summary
Until recently, companies were reluctant to deploy multiple virtual environments due to their complexity. But now that virtualization is gaining momentum in the IT community, the need for flexibility is growing. However, data protection services in heterogeneous virtual environments are often challenging for backup providers and administrators.
We understand that any server virtualization software has its pros and cons. The choice is a matter of different needs of companies and sometimes individual preferences. Nevertheless, Storware is designed to become a centralized data protection system for heterogeneous virtual environments. If you’d like to learn more – Contact us!