Can a Virtual Infrastructure Be Enough to Guarantee Data Security?

Every business needs technology in order to function. Yet, if a company’s IT network is overly complicated, then technology will hinder operations, not help it. Enter virtualization, offering business owners a way to simplify their IT infrastructure, as well as make it more secure.

Even though virtualization has been utilized by enterprises for many years, it might not be a solution that everyone’s familiar with. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that, according to a recent report from Cisco, 77 percent of small and medium-sized businesses are using some kind of virtualization, be it for storage, server hosting, or desktop infrastructure.

What exactly is virtualization? Here’s a helpful definition from Gartner:

[...] the abstraction of IT resources that masks the physical nature and boundaries of those resources from resource users. An IT resource can be a server, a client, storage, networks, applications or OSs. Essentially, any IT building block can potentially be abstracted from resource users.

One example of virtualization would be a network that’s hosted in an off-site data center. Companies that take advantage of hosted networks like this don’t have to host this technology in-house. This approach streamlines operations. Additionally, with virtualization, adding new users is as easy as setting up a new account, instead of having to run new cables and upgrade equipment.

Peace of mind is another advantage of virtualization. For example, if your company’s physical location were to be hit with a disaster, like a fire, flood, earthquake, etc., then any virtualized data that’s hosted off-site would be safe and sound. In addition to virtualization safeguarding your data from natural disasters, it protects your data from man-made disasters, like hardware failure and hacking attacks. Although, we feel the need to point out that a virtualized network isn’t impenetrable to hacking, so you’ll still want to utilize a firewall, antivirus, and spam blocking security solution.

So far, we’ve mentioned how virtualization provides companies with simplicity and security, yet we’ve failed to mention the benefit that will appeal to every business owner--cost savings! One outcome of virtualizing your network is not having to pay for the electricity it takes to run servers or pay for those pesky maintenance issues. This literally puts money back into your company’s operating budget.

Is your business taking advantage of virtualization? If not, would you like to? To learn more about the many benefits of having a virtualized network and what it takes for your company to fully utilize this technology, call us today at (803) 298-3008.