Is it the right time for SMBs to adopt virtualisation?
Yes, it is. Let’s try to understand why and how these organisations can leverage a technology like virtualisation to maximise efficiency. Looking back a few years ago, low IT budgets restricted the kind of IT infrastructure that SMBs could consider implementing. With few or no low cost options, SMBs traditionally compromised on IT and regarded it as a cost-saving area. How long could this work out for them? A highly competitive market and an evolving threat landscape have exposed this weakness and have left them vulnerable in front of both competitors and cyber criminals. Also, with automation being seen in the regular systems and processes, SMBs cannot ignore the importance of IT in business operations.
The advent of new technologies such as virtualisation and cloud is changing the way SMBs are approaching their IT. In a recent survey 72 per cent of the respondents from APJ said their organisations were considering virtualisation.
Rising interest in virtualisation
The cost effectiveness promised by virtualisation makes it a highly attractive option for SMBs worldwide. With benefits like streamlined operations and lower operational costs. virtualisation today is no longer an option exclusive to large enterprises. As the markets for new technologies mature and vendors continue to refine their offerings, smaller businesses have realised virtualisation can optimise their business operations and free them from the typical operational hassles with fewer servers to maintain the same number of business applications. Virtualisation also offers the potential to improve server scalability.
In addition to financial and operational reasons, there are more practical ones for looking into virtualisation. According to the 2010 Global SMB Information Protection Survey-India findings, the SMBs surveyed showed a heightened interest and increased investment in information protection. In fact, the survey also revealed that data loss and downtime due to cyber attacks or disasters are seen as top business risks by SMBs.
High interest level, but early stages of adoption
Despite the increasing interest in virtualisation, however, organisations are still in the early stages of implementation. Our survey highlights, the applications being virtualised by businesses indicate the extent to which they are adopting this technology. SMBs in the region, have preferred to virtualise applications such as web applications, database management-mail and calendar applications. While being important, these are not considered critical for operations. Security concerns prevent them from virtualising business-critical applications such as accounting, ERP and CRM.
Key challenges faced by enterprises as per our survey in the region, were performance (64 per cent), backup (61 per cent) and workload capacity and planning issues (58 per cent). There were a host of other common challenges as well, such as storage management, how to design the architecture, security & patch management, and how to manage the systems.
Virtualisation poses security challenges
The survey shows that security concerns are justified. Many small businesses, in fact, are dangerously lacking when it comes to protecting both virtualised data and the hardware supporting the infrastructure. In particular, backups and traditional security measures are lacking where virtualisation is concerned.
The survey revealed that only 13 per cent of respondents always back up their virtual servers, whereas 24 per cent either perform infrequent backups or never do it at all. This presents risks when it comes to disaster preparedness. When asked about the reason for the lack of backups, budget issues and staffing challenges were cited.
In addition to the potential for data loss, the risk of attacks is ever present for businesses of all sizes. Threats of cybercrime aren’t new, and yet many organisations are not even taking full advantage of basic security tools. Among those businesses that considered their virtualised servers to be at least somewhat secured, 73 per cent reported no antivirus installed. Only half have a functional firewall, and 76 per cent have no endpoint security measures installed.
So how can SMBs maximise the benefits from virtualisation?
Adopting and maintaining virtualisation in an organisation’s IT infrastructure requires careful planning, in order to maintain security while also improving efficiency. The following recommendations can help small businesses achieve the maximum benefits of virtualisation:
Implementing the right solutions: It is important to recognise that virtualisation adds another layer of complexity into the data center. Acquiring the right management technologies simplifies the implementation process, as well as maintains a fully operational infrastructure.
Streamline data backup: Data backup is vital for data stored locally as well as your virtualised information. When adopting disaster recovery tools, consider an integrated approach to streamline data retention and improve the efficiency of the backup process. Data deduplication in particular saves IT staff time as well as frees up server space.
Have a security plan in place: Security should be a primary concern, and should be planned from the beginning. A comprehensive security plan specifically suited to a virtual environment will enable IT staff to get the most out of the technology, as well as making it simple to deploy tools as needed to address dynamic security threats.
While enjoying the benefits of virtualisation adoption, SMBs must know that it is equally important to respond appropriately to the challenges it presents. SMB IT teams can see reduced costs and improved efficiency through proper vigilance and management. It is clear that virtualisation garnered popularity amongst the SMB users and any hesitation to fully commit to the technology has not diminished its relevance as a viable business option. The time is right for the SMB organisation to adopt this technology by applying some basic measures to meet resultant challenges.
The author is Managing Director, India & SAARC, Symantec. Views are personal