Intranet sites started around the mid to early nineties but like most things to do with the internet no one really knows the true origin of where they came from, who invented or what the original purpose for them were. They are beginning to become a staple for most companies and as our economy grows, despite what we think, new businesses are sprouting and growing every day and adopting these methods to offer employees a different aspect to a working environment. The Intranet has endless opportunities to expand and build your company into something bigger and better than what it is; because of the interaction element colloquies feel they have more of a voice within the confines of the site as there is less fear of ridicule.

The other cool things you can do is ask opinions of your company with more of a responsive feedback then having to go around and individually ask or send an email which normally chokes people or folks blase it, it also takes time to do these things and with an intranet site you can post a bulletin and just wait for the response.

One great feature is the money saving method it employees, by having everything on one central site you don’t have to worry about multiple documents or emails being printed. Another aspect of this is time wastage, if everyone knows where to get information from it cuts down asking time, search time, filtering time. Also it gives different departments a change to show others what they do within the company and achievements they’ve made enticing other to take suit and become more proactive within what they do, this also filters into creating a stronger bond and connection between all colloquies.

Think of the intranet as a private social media prospect, everyone can join within the company but private to anyone on the outside…yes it is a tad ‘clicky’ if you pardon the pun but it is a great starter point for a business to think about if they want to increase or improve on their human resources or trying to create more of a unified bond within their corporation or just wanting to improve services, time and money.

Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including
intranet sites.

Virtualization in IT or technology terms describes, when something is being separated from the physical. It is the creation of a virtual occurrence of something like an operating system, desktop sessions, applications, storage devices, networks, or in this case, the user and running of the virtual instance separately as a decoupled occurrence on top of or in adjacent to other computing platforms. It’s all rather confusing but it is helping to revolutionise the way we store and interact with our desktop in a manner we never thought possible before.

To best understand what User Virtualization enhances, it’s useful to define what the default option is. If your users have a workspace within any windows desktop environment (be that PV, VDI, blade PCs or traditional desktops) each user will have their own settings that express how their applications work and what resources they access. They’ll also work within a security framework that grants or denies them rights to change these settings and resources and with User Virtualisation we see a different kind of approach because with this new user state possibility it does away with all this configuring. The core issue is that each time a user logs on to a device it is as though that device is being used for the first time. Reconfiguring settings each logon instance is time consuming and wasteful.

The goal to User Virtualization is to provide consistent and seamless working environments across a assortment of application delivery mechanisms, allowing the user session to traverse across multiple Desktops, Operating Systems versions and application delivery methods, runs as a virtual instance on top of the underlying desktop components, separate from the desktop assets, making the working atmosphere predictable and responsive, simplifying IT administration and reducing costs dramatically.

Another side note about this ability is that how it allows other aspects of work to become easier like training can be cut down as the system runs one way and can only be done that way, allowing people to follow the practises a lot quicker and efficiently.

With this in mind, User Virtualization is recognised by many as being potentially bigger than the VDI market itself. Time and time again we see organizations embrace these new-fangled ideas without much consideration and it flops but with User Virtualization it is changing the game. It is going to be massive, so make sure you get your head around it sooner rather than later.

Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including
user virtualisation.

Storage virtualisation consists of enabling the facility of running simulated pools of data to Servers and Desktops. This effectively eliminates wasted physical storage space. As the total amount of used physical storage goes up, more disk space can be added easily without the need of moving data or resizing data volumes.

Desktop virtualisation is also known as ‘thin client computing’. This solution removes local desktop operating systems and centralises from one point by the delivery of them with applications like an entire standard user desktop. Enabling branch office connectivity and workforce mobility solutions while also saves space as well as time when you need to update a program for your entire company.

Application virtualisation centralises the installation of user applications/programs, so that they can be more easily deployed and maintained to and by large groups of users spread across many locations. This gives everyone in the office the same application software system and saves up more space on your personal server. Again this offers out of office connectivity and remote and mobile work solutions.

Server virtualisation creates multiple virtual servers allowing many applications and operating systems to be run on of one physical server simultaneously. This new kind of authorisation drastically changes the way the system is operated with physical server reduction and consolidation, higher availability, disaster recovery techniques and greener IT solutions.

If it’s still all a bit confusing, despite my best efforts to keep it to plain English it’s basically a lot like vacuum packing your clothes for holiday taking it from 2 suitcases to three quarters of 1. You get all the same amount of clothes and choices but with less space, less energy consumed while packing and time saved by using the method. So in an information technology standing you are getting all the same information and choices but it is run off one virtual server, saving you space within server houses, it takes less energy to run as it is of one sever and you get to save time by only having to interact with one key server that filters down to the rest.

It really is a great concept and will be implemented by everyone till it becomes the norm, trust me. This is radical and brand new stuff but with so many options and functions that can be implemented with this service it is a good one to instigate into your own business agenda. Which company doesn’t want to be ahead of the game and saving money, time and space?…i thought as much.

Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including
virtualisation services.

There is great benefit to be had by virtualising systems, in order to curtail some of the effects of these problems. Namely, the need to perform regular maintenance on hardware that may as well be virtualised and the expense incurred during such maintenance. There are several different types of virtualisation however.

Desktop virtualisation is a common variant, it essentially works like this. Client machines connect to a remote server and receive a virtual desktop interface. As a result, they can make use of the resources contained within the server, such as ram and other hardware such as data storage. Another type of virtualisation is known as server virtualisation. In the creation of an IT environment in larger enterprises, a network is dependent on more than one server. However the workloads vary widely depending on application requirements, user activity or network conditions. As a result, many of the servers will spend much of their time sitting idle and not using the full capacity of their resources. The problem with this is that it’s a waste and is also very inefficient. The servers demand expensive power, cooling and ongoing maintenance – so there is a necessity for these servers to make full use of their capacity, in order to justify the expense of maintenance. Server virtualisation is the process of increasing server utilisation, in order to spread the workload of a network more evenly – and thus make more efficient use of the servers’ resources. It does this by dividing individual physical servers into multiple virtual servers, each with its own operating environment and applications – it is therefore possible to have 2 or more virtual servers on a single physical server with different operating systems. This is achieved by an administrator using a application to divide the server into multiple virtual environments As a result, the capacity of a single server is multiplied and costs are reduced due to the ability to group multiple servers onto a single server host.

Another benefit is that because the servers are virtualised as data, they can be backed up, moved, restored if there is a problem with the underlying physical hardware. Whilst server virtualisation can reduce costs, it also can increase the complexity of the network environment. Virtual servers still require ongoing maintenance and support, much like physical servers. Specialised tools and resources are absolutely necessary for an administrator to provide such support and maintenance solutions as they come about.

Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including server virtualisation.

It Saves Money: Virtualization reduces the number of servers you have to run within your company which in turn means you’ll be saving on hardware costs. Also you will save on the total amount of energy needed to run the hardware and provide cooling for the system itself saving you even more money.

It’s Good For The Environment: Virtualization is actually a green technology through and through. Energy savings could be brought in if widespread adoption of virtualization technologies became the norm, it would help to negate the need to build so many new power plants to keep up with demand of our ever growing power wants so could thus conserve our earth’s energy resources and keep the environment cleaner.

It Reduces System Administration Work: With all information in one virtual place, system administrators do not have to support as many machines as previously needed which means they can then move from tedious admin work to more strategic tasks that are simpler and easier to acquire and can be more frequently completed.

Better Use From Hardware: Virtualization enables higher utilization rates of hardware because each server supports enough virtual machines to increase its utilization from the typical 15% to as much as 80%. This is a massive increase and can help to amplify business productivity and ease to a whole new level never thought possible.

It Makes Software Installation Much Easier: With software vendors tending more and more towards delivering their products preinstalled in computing machines (also known as virtual appliances), much of the traditional installation and configuration work associated with software will disappear instantly, cutting down download time for example and the whole concept of constructing settings. And if you are business that has to keep seriously up to date on all modern software and hardware programs this can cut down system time considerably.

Mini Glossary

Bare Metal: Virtualized servers are where the virtualization software is installed directly on the machine rather than on one operating system. Because it installs on the machine, it is said to reside on ‘bare metal’.

Client Virtualization: Using virtualization to enable a client device, like a laptop to support isolated operating environments. Client virtualization is often used to move workloads into isolated environments to reduce system administration requirements.

P2V: Shorthand for physical to virtual. ‘P2V’ stands for the process of migrating systems from the physical hardware they originally ran off on to many virtual operating environments running in one virtualized environment.

Server Virtualization: Running virtualization software on server machines in order to host multiple operating system environments on a single piece of hardware. Simple right?

Storage Virtualization: Using shared storage located on individual servers so that multiple servers can share a single storage device. Storage virtualization is often implemented after initial server virtualization efforts in order to centralise resources and reduce storage administration work.

Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including
storage virtualisation.