Database Virtualization is Key to Scalability and Performance

Virtualization technologies have become a cornerstone in the data center, enabling companies to leverage their existing infrastructure and accelerate deployment of new systems. 

 As organizations move towards a service-oriented architecture, data centers are increasingly being virtualized. A virtualized data center uses software-based technology to create a complete system image from multiple hosts (such as servers, storage arrays and networking switches) that allows users to access applications and services by connecting directly to the virtual machines hosted in those hosts. Data centers are being virtualized so that IT organizations can make use of the existing physical resources to maximize performance and reduce costs while at the same time improving operational efficiencies.

The mission of database virtualization software is to help IT organizations maximize their investments by enabling them to manage their virtualized databases at scale with greater ease, visibility and control.

 A well-designed database solution can provide significant benefits to web applications. However, if a business relies on a single database, it may not be able to meet the demands of a growing website.

 When your database grows beyond a few gigabytes, it quickly becomes a performance bottleneck for your application. This issue can easily be solved by implementing database virtualization.

  • What is Database Virtualization?
  • Why Is Database Virtualization Better Than Traditional Databases?
  • Why Database Virtualization Is Critical
  • How to Choose a Right Database Virtualization Software
  • Is Database Virtualization Good for the Environment?

What is Database Virtualization?

The term database virtualization refers to the ability of a database administrator to move an entire database environment to another machine. Using such virtualization, all the data can be moved at once to a separate server, which makes it easy for users to access databases on multiple machines at the same time. According to Delphix database server also allows an administrator to easily scale up or down the number of servers, without having to wait for each server to be provisioned individually. Database virtualization, therefore, has significant advantages in terms of cost savings and efficiency.

 Why Is Database Virtualization Better Than Traditional Databases?

Database virtualization (DV) is a software architecture that allows database applications to run on separate machines, instead of being run on a single machine. By utilizing the concept of virtualization, the database administrator can easily scale up or down the number of databases that run on a single system. This allows companies to more efficiently manage the resources required to support high volumes of data. By increasing performance and decreasing resource requirements, DV offers substantial cost savings over traditional databases.

There are two main benefits of virtualizing your databases. The first is that you can make use of a greater amount of storage space than you could with a traditional database. A typical database server uses around 1TB of disk storage space, which is barely enough room for even a small company. With database virtualization, you can use up to 25TB of space.

 Why Database Virtualization Is Critical

No matter how efficient your application architecture, data performance becomes increasingly more important the larger your database gets. Databases typically scale linearly with size; doubling the size of a database from 4GB to 8GB means quadrupling the amount of physical memory it requires.

While databases aren’t usually mentioned in the same breath as other business technology tools, they play a critical role in every company’s infrastructure. They store and manage all the information, transactions, and data that businesses need to run. They can be large, medium, or small depending on the size of the company, but they’re often a central hub for everything else running inside of an organization. Whether they’re Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle Database, they all basically do the same thing: store and organize all kinds of data for a business.

 How to Choose a Right Database Virtualization Software

When you consider the best database virtualization software, don’t just focus on its scalability or security features. What you really want to look at is the ease of use and performance. If you’re looking for a database virtualization software, you need to choose the software that fits your needs.

Whether you’re creating a new database, upgrading or migrating an existing one, the right tool can help you stay organized, streamline processes, save money, increase productivity, and manage the entire database lifecycle. A database virtualization software, such as Delphix, is a powerful solution that provides you with a comprehensive solution, allowing you to take control of all aspects of your database management process.

 Is Database Virtualization Good for the Environment?

Yes! According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), database virtualization is one of the most energy efficient and cost-effective ways to manage databases. That means fewer servers to run, smaller data centers, and more cost-effective hardware. If you’re using MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server, database virtualization can save your business money and cut your carbon footprint too.

 The advantage of virtualizing your database infrastructure is that it reduces physical hardware costs, increases hardware utilization, and reduces the need for redundant data. These benefits improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of managing your data.

 In fact, one study by the Uptime Institute found that virtual servers are up to 70% less energy-intensive than traditional hardware.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are plenty of ways to get a database into a virtualized environment. You could use the Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package, for example, to import data into a data warehouse. Or, you could use Microsoft Analysis Services (MSA) to migrate data from a legacy system into a new data warehouse. Or, you could use a cloud database, such as Azure SQL Data Warehouse. But no matter which path you take, you need to consider the tradeoffs involved in each approach. Learn the pros and cons of each and decide which approach is right for you.

 

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By Susan Barlow

Dr. Susan Barlow is retired from academia after teaching business administration, project management, and business writing courses for over 20 years.

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