Data Center Virtualization- A cost-effective business proposition

Globalization and technological innovation have led to the growth of IT infrastructures in every business environment. With such apparent infrastrucutre growth, the  corporate houses as well as small and medium business enterprises are faced by the challenges of increased energy and power cost as well  operational overheads. Organization in an attempt to meet these challenges has turned to use data centers. The extensive use of data centers today demands that these organizations reduce their carbon footprints and global warming.

Data centers which came into existence to meet the growing need for information storage and faster retrieval across the  locations, were dense with computer systems, networking and telecommunication equipment. Further, with demands for a customized software and applications in all walks of the product life cycle, critical business data had to be made available to the IT outsourcing teams. This called the need for strong information security methods. Virtualization of the data centers were aimed  towards making  efficient use of available hardware and software resources. However, with the eco-friendly requirement integrated into the business systems,  the IT giants worked on developing datacenter virtualization models which would help in reduction of energy consumption by nearly 80-90%. 

With green computing becoming the buzz word today, organizations tend to use environmentally bio-degradable materials and sustainable resources rather than hazardous materials as components for the data center infrastructure.  Further, data center virtualization allows organizations to reduce the number of hardware installed which brings in cost savings in sizable forms. However, adopting virtualization was easy without the requirement of  any large investments.

The growing demands for datacenter virtualization paved way for leaders in the IT industry  to extend their experience in  IT operations and management to both small and medium business organizations as well as the as large corporate giants.  These IT service providers offer the client organizations virtualization-as-a- service, besides the traditional virtualization methods across applications, networks and systems.

The data center virtualization offered by the leaders in the industry segment  can be enumerated as a 5-phase  lifecycle process. This includes -

*        Assessment and analysis of the performance statistics of the existing infrastructure, applications, its related business requirement.

*        Defining the requirements for environmental changes and bring about architectural changes through  operational design

*        Implementation and integration of virtual infrastructure with application and network

*        Facility Management and

*        Transformation

The client organizations benefits with facilities of virtualization without any upfront investment. Correct implementation of virtualization will establish valuable efficiencies like agility, flexibility, better network capacity besides reducing costs.

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Enjoy Strategic Business Benefits with Advanced Data Center Virtualization

Virtualization technologies are rapidly becoming the foundation of modern data centers as IT managers seek dramatic improvements in resource and operational efficiencies as well as responsiveness to business needs. It is considered a key enabler for consolidation, but it has the potential to play a much larger role in the quest towards Green Information Technology (IT), and has become one of the important data center technologies to emerge in the last decade.

Data center virtualization includes an assortment of virtualization actions intended to create a virtualized computing environment, such as for use in cloud computing, within a data center. The most common implementation of virtualization to date supports business scenarios like consolidation (primary objective), business continuity/disaster recovery, test and development, and security. However, virtualization is much more than simply consolidating physical servers and cutting data-center costs. The technology has far-reaching impacts, from optimum resource utilization at one end to substantial savings in energy, power, and management costs at the other.

Data center virtualization creates more dynamic data centers with frequent configuration changes. Regardless of its specific goals, any organization that employs a Datacenter Server Virtualization Lifecycle Services can achieve dramatic results and benefits like:

Strategic Business Benefits like agility & flexible from

* Automated IT processes

* Available resource pools

* Capacity on-demand

* Datacenter Operational Support

Virtualization encourages efficient power management, thus ensuring a Green Data Center. It also facilitates easy access to data. With data center virtualization, many professionals have extensive mobility in their activity, and they don’t need to travel with many equipments and can access important files without a problem. With data being gathered and available from a central environment, better collaboration between employees, clients and stakeholders is made possible. It also brings about plenty of savings with reduced costs, as it eliminates the licensing for software. With the costs associated with data backups and IT specialists’ expenses, there is a reduction in IT overhead as well.

Due to better use of infrastructure, there is increased operational system efficiency and simplified management. Employees are no longer restricted to work from their desktops, as they can work from any place that has an Internet connection and any web enabled device thereby improving productivity and efficiency levels.

The benefits of virtualization can sound impressive, but lack of adequate planning can present a number of challenges. Partner with a service provider who offer several conventional network consulting services that aid in virtualizing servers, networks, desktops and storage to enjoy optimum benefits.

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Making Data Center Virtualization Work for Your Business

Virtualization technology is rapidly becoming the foundation of modern data centers. Not long ago, virtualization was all about server consolidation. Virtualization today is enabling businesses with greater agility. Before considering a virtualization project for your data center, it is important to first confirm if your facility can even handle the transition.

With data center virtualization, there is a direct impact is on the expenses and on wasted processing power and leans towards creating a green datacenter. There is no need to create a huge datacenter, just install powerful virtualized servers or running a huge number of servers can make a difference. Virtualization is an ideal tool for data center improvement. But if not designed and built correctly, newly virtualized systems can cost the company time and resources, creating confusion among departments. That is why it is important to take the time during the planning stage to look critically at your IT environment.

When implemented correctly, data center virtualization establishes valuable efficiencies and that can help contain costs. In a virtual IT environment, it helps businesses to increase utilization of their existing hardware by running virtual servers on fewer, highly scalable enterprise-class servers. Use of a virtualized datacenter tackles major space constraint in many organizations. Control costs, increase utilization, more responsive IT green initiatives. While the benefits of virtualization can sound impressive, getting there may present challenges without adequate planning. Many datacenter virtualization solutions ensure competency in hardware requirements, by enabling an organization to utilize lesser hardware to perform the same jobs.

To ensure that datacenter virtualization in your business is a success, ensuring security is critical. As with any implementation, the virtualized environment should follow the same stringent security controls as a physical one.  A good virtualization plan is tied to a good storage plan. Backup is highly essential.  Virtualization is growing because it can provide business continuity capabilities. Any Virtualization solution should provide a flexible architecture and the tools needed to help you manage capacity and include load balancing to ensure performance and fast response times and redundancy.  With datacenter virtualization, it is possible for enterprises to centralize IT management, outsource IT management and reduce the size of IT departments.

Datacenter virtualization empowers the IT department with tools for resource scheduling, data protection, and disaster recovery. It can help enhance your infrastructure performance. Team up with the best service provider with a service desk support who can combine security and reliability to accomplish an enabled enterprise.

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Reduce Costs and Improve Productivity with Managed Print Services

Until recently, copiers, printers, faxes and scanners collectively known as the output equipments fleets or hardcopy device fleets were the most over looked assets in almost all enterprises.

Until recently, copiers, printers, faxes and scanners collectively known as the output equipments fleets or hardcopy device fleets were the most over looked assets in almost all enterprises. Though the population of output fleets in the office environment has grown substantially there has been no marked improvement in its management. It continued to be the most over looked under utilized and under managed assets languishing in the poor print rooms of the companies and organizations. This coupled with lack of proper asset management and page volume tracking led to costs spiraling out of control.

Gartner Group in its survey found out that most businesses spend between 1 and 3% of their total annual revenue in generating documents. However, enterprises do not have a proper system in place to find out the total print expenses and their actual print requirements. This negligent attitude of the companies and organizations towards the output fleets started to change with the advent of economic recession. Companies looking for ways to cut costs stumbled upon the opportunity for cost savings from output fleets. A comprehensive and strategic approach was required to turn the office print land scape from being unproductive and costly to productive and cost effective. That is what Managed Print Services (MPS) is all about. It is the process of assessing, designing, optimizing and managing the output fleets in a uniform fashion. It is an outsourcing service where the service provider takes the full responsibility of managing the company's output fleets.
The core features of MPS are

* Proactive maintenance of the output devices fleets
* Information management with consolidated billing
* Ongoing optimization of devices, services and supplies throughout the contract life

The several service providers that engage in Managed Print Services (MPS) comprise of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), systems integrators, managed service providers (IT and copier resellers) and supplies based providers. MPS providers make use of four main software applications when providing MPS namely

·Print Management Software

This software not only manages the nature and volume of print but also authenticate users.

·Discovery and Design Software

This software helps in analyzing and planning the changes that are required for implementing MPS.

·Device Management Software

This software monitors and manages the output fleets in an environment.

·Scan Routing Software

This software helps to route scans to fax servers, network folders, email, workflows and so on.

With Managed Print Services, enterprises can benefit from 30% cost savings, secure printing, proactive monitoring and reduced total cost of ownership.

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Network Consulting Services: New Trends in Global Business Management

The advent of globalization and the demands from the customers for better facilities and technically high end products places vast responsibility on the management shoulders top of the line managers need to work out strategic methods for effective operations more so in a widely networked organization. However, in a technologically sound era, the management of networking services involves wide area communication devices, data storage mediums, tools and procedures, for a smooth functioning of networked systems. A network management is characterized by its faults, configuration, accounting, performance and security.

In the present business environment wherein there is a lot of dependency on the electronic data transfer and storage, data security over a globally wide network becomes a major concern. To maintain such a technological lifeline, needs the expertise of the network consulting service providers. With the expert help at hand, organizations can spring back quickly from issues such as network downtime, intrusions, disruption of service and can effectively manage the network to ensure high level of productivity and profit revenue. The managed network service providers' remains accountable for the functions and performance of the network.

The network consulting services provider being from an Information technology industry is well equipped with the knowledge of the various computer systems, server, storage devices, and networking equipments. the leaders in network consulting services, with their team of engineers with expertise in LAN/WAN design, network security, IP communications, business process development and technology implementation, offer services in the filed of Data center consulting services including migration , WAN consolidation and optimization, Network readiness and unified communication optimization services.

Further, since information security is also an issue that most of the technologically enabled organizations struggle with, choosing a network consulting service provider with expertise in the field of providing high level network security over bandwidths will prove beneficial for the global organization. These service providers with their expertise, understanding and analyzing skills offer customized solutions for routing, switching, security, wireless and Voice over IP. Such client specific solution helps both small and medium enterprises to expand their business to new markets while the large business houses can capitalize on market trends.

With expertise of having designed and developed secure networks customized as per client requirements, the service providers also manage virtual private networks in green datacenter environment. Besides providing bandwidth management, server networking, remote access configuration, net meeting, host connectivity they also offer a 24/7 support and online status check as a wholesome package, making network consulting services a new trend in the business world.

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Striving to Build a Secure and Productive IT Environment

The IT infrastructure is a complex framework consisting of business process applications, LAN/WAN technologies, IP communications, security management, data center management and several other processes. A high level of expertise is required to combine the individual components amicably for production of optimized results. The IT environment has to be flexible and scalable to help your business achieve its objectives without affecting the costs and increasing the risks. The network has to be highly secured to avoid any adverse effects on your business.

It is advisable to employ proficient network consulting services as the best strategies are deployed that are in alignment with ITIL standards for delivering ecstatic performances. A competent network service provider provides you with enhanced data center consolidation and migration services without affecting the performance of the applications and alleviates your financial concerns. They provide an infrastructure that leverages integration and enhances the performance of the applications. They provide unified and optimized communication services. They facilitate remote and managed LAN and WAN processes as well as remote and managed IP/VoIP.

The network consulting service providers provide the best information security services with stringent compliance policies that have commendable capabilities to meet the information security needs of your business. They provide you with a robust and secure architecture that monitors online threats persistently. They deploy suitable models for vulnerability assessment and authentication management. The identity and access management services rendered address all the security issues effectively and ensure a risk-free environment. The framework can accommodate with all kinds of compliance frameworks without any conflicting situations.

The solutions provided by the network consulting service providers encourage system integration to make the environment secure and optimized. The disaster recovery services they provide helps in avoiding losses with prompt normal operations and minimal delays. The services that are provided are cloud based which helps your business to make some critical business decisions bearing fruitful outcomes.

The success of your business lies in the ability to manage your IT resources and processes optimally. In a highly competitive environment you need to implement constructive strategies that indicate towards a positive phase in the future. The existence of IT and its role in leveraging growth in business and increasing revenue earning potentials is undeniably strong. You need solutions that help in increasing the agility and transparency of your business and helps in determining the future of your business. Thus you need prolific solutions that help to provide a cost-effective, highly efficient and secure business environment.

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Global sourcing needs of its customers through its Co-Sourcing model

The increase in the dependency levels of the business organizations on the information technology has made organizations ready to face the aggressive competitive markets. However, such increased dependency has moved IT from being a support function to a vital business factor in most industry segments. Further, to maintain their flexibility in IT functions organizations have taken the route of outsourcing most of the functions. The movement from the traditional support structure to the critical component of all business process has made it difficult for organizations to plan out their long-term budget, as one cannot always assess the cost of innovation.

Contemplating the problems arising from such situations, the leaders in the field of IT services have designed methods to fulfil the global sourcing needs of their customers through a process which would benefit both the clients as well as the service provider. Co-sourcing is a business practice wherein the external service provider in collaboration with the members of the client organization performs the service. This process earns an advantage over the outsourcing model in that it minimizes the risks linked with outsourcing, brings in transparency, control and clarity over the process co-sourced.

The Co-sourcing model of IT outsourcing which is based on a partnership between the customer and the service provider, offers the clients the flexibility in choosing the service delivery options ranging from asset light to cloud based services to business ready infrastructure to support SaaS platforms. Further, the co-sourcing partners are also well equipped to provide the clientele with setting up shared or dedicated delivery centers instead of opting for IT infrastructure outsourcing. Co-sourcing model can also include the process of outsourcing part of software development or software maintenance activities to an external organization, while some development in-house.

This would actually give both the organizations a better insight into the process. Based on the fundamental aspects of transparency, flexibility and value addition, the Co-Sourcing model with its striking difference from the traditional IT outsourcing one is today a vital part of the success oriented business strategies. This approach of IT outsourcing provides a number of benefits to the organizations. With an increased coverage and a decreased overhead cost, this process turns a fixed cost model into a variable cost one. Further, in a highly competitive business environment, this model helps customers provide global solutions with flexibility for capacity management and lesser load on employment liability.

Some of the co-sourcing models adapted by business houses are managed security services, Smart Service Desk Solutions, Virtual Support and Project Management Practice.

 

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Remote Infrastructure management Services: Infrastructure management for the Gen-Next organizations

In today’s globalized and techno-savvy business environment, IT infrastructure plays a major role and is not limited to just the hardware, software and the related network. With business pace accelerating, organizations from all industrial sectors, are all moving to real-time business models that involve instantaneous information and data sharing. To meet such fast paced competition, these organizations now include a number of factors under the large umbrella of the IT infrastructure with no compromise on quality and security.

IT infrastructure of the present day business enterprises covers aspects like IT policies and strategies, architecture & design, procurement, installation and management of hardware, software and networks and related equipments. Besides, it also includes tools and facilities, IT personnel, IT security, administration, audit, application development, integration and management as well as vendor management. With a large array of services under its umbrella, organizations feel the financial burden in handling infrastructure management services.

A number of organizations have entered the arena of providing infrastructure management services. However, with IT infrastructure spread out to various data centres, the leaders in the field have pioneered the next generation infrastructure management services which would remotely handle the enterprise infrastructure including data center transformation and management, network security.

The remote infrastructure management services would impact 90% of the IT infrastructure and operational expenses. This process involves remote management of workstations servers, network devices, storage devices and IT security devices. The monitoring and management under remote infrastructure services involves a combination of offshore and global delivery centre known as the Operations Management Centre (OMC) or a client operations management centre. These centers are manned 24/7 by trained professionals and are available for anytime support. With a strong focus on Networks Security and ITIL compliance and advanced processes and tools, these enterprises offer services on a Global Delivery Model with higher flexibility, control, quality and low costs. Other functions which are a part of the remote infrastructure services are Proactive monitoring of server and network devices in a Data Center, workstation Management, Server Management, Storage management, Application support, IT security Management and Help desk.

The valuable benefits offered by the remote infrastructure management services showcases why the business houses are ready to outsource these services from experts in this field. For the business houses, these services ensure right sizing of the resources amounting to increased business value, reduced total cost of ownership and overhead costs, which amounts to nearly 60% of the operational costs. Besides outsourcing, this service from the experts in this field provides the client company with technically sound professionals to remotely manage the entire complex IT infrastructure with improved Service level Management. In addition, the client company gets a better ROI on the IT investments and also saves training and upgrading of skilled staff.

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Professional IT Solutions for Smart and Decisive Decisions in Business

Management of IT processes and components is not child's play. The entire world is in a euphoric frenzy to employ the latest technologies for improving their business profits and gaining more mileage. These businesses often fail to focus on the core necessities and competencies of the business and experience disheartening results. The correct methodologies and the best practices are overlooked giving way to many erroneous implementations that impact costs adversely.

The IT services can be efficiently provided only when there is an effective data center hosting platform. Large deficiencies exist in the data hosting facilities which hinders optimum service deliveries. These facilities lack flexibility and have inefficient and inadequate security solutions. They do not possess capabilities that can help in delivering customized solutions and maximizing resources to positively influence the business ROI and reduce costs. Nowadays there is more emphasis on use of green datacenter services, but hardly any of the businesses have appropriate Green Datacenter processes.

Businesses that follow a chartered strategy where IT processes are optimized and the possibilities of rising costs are reduced are the ones that will experience long term benefits. These IT businesses have awakened to the need for professional assistance in helping them identify their weaknesses and make modifications that complement the business objectives, and produce healthy results. The professional services are provided via the cloud computing process which means that the businesses are provided with the best, latest and effective solutions.

The competent managed desktop services rendered by these IT professionals result in leveraged performances with a good control over redundant processes thus alleviating costs. Intense and proactive security measures are initiated with consistent monitoring and control metrics. The solutions provided are customized that best suit the requirements of the business without causing any conflicts in the environment or any contradictory manifestations. It deploys best practices in conformation with the standards of green technology.

The IT professionals provide unparalleled service desk support that helps the businesses to experience fulfilling and rewarding experiences. The service desks are equipped to handle every function intelligently. It provides extremely gratifying experiences as it helps users to find resolutions, create requests, report incidents and review their status through simple self help controls. It provides assistance in efficient logging and tracking of the incidents and service requests. Normalcy is quickly restored in service operations to ensure that the business does not suffer any major setbacks. Thus businesses that seek the IT professionals' help seldom encounter disappointments.

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Simplifying the Implementation of Identity and Access Management

Identity and access management (IAM) technology have become an integral part of security tools, and most enterprises are realizing the value of the same. IAM is fundamentally involved with the establishment of identity components in business processes and technology solutions so that it manages users' identities and offers logical admission to an organization's application. As this technology is used to initiate, capture, record and manage user identities and their associated access permissions in a preset fashion, it ensures that there is information security consulting, and that access privileges is granted according to one interpretation of policy and that all individuals and services are suitably authenticated.

The need for adopting IAM Processes
The need to comply with regulations such as HIPAA, SOX and PCI are driving users to adopt Identity Management technology. It is essential to establish the accountability around data access and management, and it is important that IT provide value to the company's employees by giving them smooth access to the business apps. Without the proper access an executive may not get the required information to close a sale.

Simplifying the Implementation of Identity and access management
An inadequately controlled IAM processes can lead to regulatory non-compliance for the reason that if the organization is audited, the management will not be able to prove that company data is not at risk for being misused. And hence it has become necessary for IT security operations groups to be paying specific attention to IAM providers that are focused on a strategy to simplify the implementation process.

An identity and access management (IAM) program consists of a technology solution interconnected with pertinent business processes, to manage the identity of users and their access to systems and applications in the organization. For any IT application, the access procedure commences with user confirmation and granting apposite access privileges based on the user's role. The automation of these measures is usually created in the IAM program. The IAM program needs to be attentively envisaged, by incorporating sound IT architectural vision to prevent being saddled with IAM silos in different departments.

A few tips for a successful TAM implementation
To avoid implementation challenges like federating identity, risk-based authorization and role management these tips can help.

1. It is important to know where the organization is headed with IAM implementation.
2. Getting the suitable people involved is essential.
3. Implement incrementally: use a phased approach that delivers value early and often.
4. Educate the end users, business and IT staff on the new technology and process changes.
5. An IAM solution needs routine attention to stay in top form.

Although the benefits of identity and access management implementation are significant, the organizations that are most likely to realize them are those that have a detailed, realistic implementation plan in place. And by making the implementation process simple, an organization stands to gain a lot.

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The Growing Need for IT Infrastructure Services

In the first generation mainframe era IT Infrastructures were based on local data centre in large corporate offices. Hardware of early computer systems was complex to operate and maintain, and therefore required a special environment to operate. Many cables were necessary to connect all the components and methods to accommodate and organize these were devised, such as standard racks to mount equipment, elevated floors, and cable trays (installed overhead or under the elevated floor).

During that time even old computers required a great deal of power, and had to be cooled to avoid overheating. An important consideration during that time was security because computers were expensive, and were often used for military purposes. Basic design guidelines for controlling access to the computer room were therefore devised.

Today, IT Infrastructure management of an enterprise includes wide range and variety of servers, storage devices, network devices, security devices and software components. Large enterprise have multiple sets of data centers connected together over variety of technologies such has dedicated link, VPN links, MPLS etc.

Cloud Computing & Data Centers

Cloud computing is basically the concept where computing is "in the cloud" i.e. that the processing (and the related data) is not in a specified, known or static place(s). This is in contrast to the traditional computing where the processing takes place in one or more specific servers that are known. However, it must be noted that, the server location, place and controls are still known to someone who is a part in service delivery chain.

Cloud computing has enabled the availability of inexpensive networking equipment, coupled with new standards for network cabling and made it possible to use a hierarchical design that put the servers in a specific room inside the company. Cloud computing has also helped data centres to gain popular recognition.

Data centers gained more importance when companies needed fast Internet connectivity and nonstop operation to deploy systems and establish a presence on the Internet. Installing such equipment was not viable for many smaller companies. Many companies started building very large facilities, called Internet data centers (IDCs), which provide businesses with a range of solutions for systems deployment and operation.

New technologies and practices were designed to handle the scale and the operational requirements of such large-scale operations. These practices eventually migrated towards & lt datacenter hosting, and were adopted largely because of their practical results. Network consulting services provide datacenter services that can deliver more than ten times the network capacity of a large corporate city building. This capacity, coupled with highly specified environmental controls, can offer considerable savings on long-term capital and operational costs to enterprises.

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