Virtual infrastructure is a collection of software-defined components that make up an enterprise IT environment. A virtual infrastructure provides the same IT capabilities as physical resources, but with software, so that IT teams can allocate these virtual resources quickly and across multiple systems, based on the varying needs of the enterprise.
By decoupling physical hardware from an operating system, a virtual infrastructure can help organizations achieve greater IT resource utilization, flexibility, scalability and cost savings. These benefits are especially helpful to small businesses that require reliable infrastructure but can’t afford to invest in costly physical hardware.
The benefits of virtualization touch every aspect of an IT infrastructure, from storage and server systems to networking tools. Here are some key benefits of a virtual infrastructure:
By separating physical hardware from operating systems, virtualization can provision compute, memory, storage and networking resources across multiple virtual machines (VMs) for greater application performance, increased cost savings and easier management. Despite variances in design and functionality, a virtual infrastructure typically consists of these key components:
From design to disaster recovery, there are certain virtual infrastructure requirements organizations must meet to reap long-term value from their investment.
A virtual infrastructure architecture can help organizations transform and manage their IT system infrastructure through virtualization. But it requires the right building blocks to deliver results. These include:
Server virtualization software
Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is a software-defined, unified system
Create a software-based—or virtual—representation of applications, servers, storage and networks