A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based emulation of a computer system that runs on top of a physical host machine. Essentially, a VM allows you to create multiple virtual computers that operate independently on a single physical machine.

There are several ways your business can benefit from using virtual machines for your employees:

  1. Cost savings: Instead of purchasing multiple physical machines, you can create several virtual machines on a single physical server. This can result in significant cost savings on hardware, electricity, and maintenance.
  2. Scalability: With virtual machines, it’s easy to scale up or down as your business needs change. You can quickly add or remove virtual machines as needed, making it easy to respond to changing demands.
  3. Security: Virtual machines can help improve your business’s security by isolating applications and data on separate virtual machines. This reduces the risk of one application or user compromising the security of the entire system.
  4. Flexibility: Virtual machines can be easily moved between physical servers, making it easy to relocate applications and data. This also makes it easy to create backup copies of virtual machines for disaster recovery purposes.
  5. Testing and Development: Virtual machines are a great tool for software development and testing. Developers can create multiple virtual machines with different operating systems and software configurations to test their applications.
  6. Hardware Failure: If you have a hardware failure with a critical piece of IT infrastructure such as a server, it’s much faster to restore when this is in a virtual environment. In situations requiring Disaster Recovery, this can ensure continued up time even I the physical office is inaccessible.

Overall, virtual machines offer a range of benefits to businesses, from cost savings to improved security and flexibility. By using virtual machines, you can make better use of your hardware resources, streamline management and maintenance, and create a more secure and scalable IT infrastructure.  When people talk about having servers in the cloud, this is how that’s done.

Finding a VM solution that’s Right For You

There are several virtual machine platforms available, both commercial and open source. Some of the most popular virtual machine platforms are:

  • VMware: VMware is a leading virtualization platform that provides a suite of virtualization products for enterprise-level businesses. It includes products like VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, and VMware vSphere.
  • VirtualBox: VirtualBox is an open-source virtualization platform developed by Oracle. It is free to use and supports a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  • Hyper-V: Hyper-V is a virtualization platform developed by Microsoft. It is included with Windows Server and Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise editions.
  • KVM: Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a popular open-source virtualization platform for Linux. It is built into the Linux kernel and provides a range of features for virtualizing Linux and other operating systems.
  • Docker: Docker is a containerization platform that allows developers to build, package, and distribute applications in lightweight containers. It is often used for containerized microservices and is popular in cloud computing.

These are just a few of the most popular virtual machine platforms available. Each platform has its own features and benefits, so it's important to choose the one that best fits your business needs.

Natural Networks is specializes in hosting virtualization platforms, and can help in virtualizing your physical servers into a VM host run in VMWare’s platform.  By virtualizing your environment you are benefitting from many of the aforementioned items discussed earlier.  Virtualization offers more security, increased cost savings, and greater flexibility with your business’ IT operations.

If your interested in learning more ab out how Natural Networks can help with your VM needs, or for any other Managed Service needs, give us a call today!