Today, many businesses have to deal with the same common issues within their environments, from server sprawl to lack of physical space. With virtualisation technologies, these problems, with a correctly designed, planned solution can be significantly reduced or even alleviated.

There are 5 levels of virtualisation:

1. Server Virtualisation

Server Virtualisation enables each physical server to run multiple virtual servers based on demand and capacity. To the users, virtual servers work like a physical server so that it can run with its own operating environment and application on any designated physical server.

2. Storage Virtualisation

Storage Virtualisation enables data on different disk arrays to be viewed as a single pool of information to be accessed by a virtualised server farm. Allocating storage resources can be done on the basis of what is used up to any maximum limit set for a user or application. This delivers data services transparently whilst using the available resources very effectively.

3. Desktop Virtualisation

Desktop Virtualisation enables the deployment of standard desktop images on every PC, to deliver a consistent user experience that is easy to manage and fast to deploy. The virtual machines can be maintained centrally and accessed from a personal computer, thin PC or thin client.

4. Application Virtualisation

Application Virtualisation enables core business applications to be centralised in a server farm. This ensures that there is a continuous high level of service delivered from the appropriate system resources.

5. Network Virtualisation

Network Virtualisation optimises network bandwidth so that the interaction between servers, their storage and clients can be managed without the limitations of physical connections for each, and every device. With virtualised servers in the data centre, the management and cabling is significantly simplified.