Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Virtualized Services
Virtualization of services and functions is not a wholly new concept.
Answering machines, for example, provided a virtual replacement for
human answering services, and have since been replaced in turn by voice
mail systems. Modern enterprise collaboration systems such as the Micro-
soft Exchange platform with its Live Communication Server option can
even take a voice message, perform automated voice recognition, and
transmit the resulting text and audio to an individual's mailbox for easy
review on the recipient's device of choice.
Other services, such as virtual faxes, print spoolers, and virtualized
data storage reduce the technology equipment footprint within the enter-
prise while extending access to consumers throughout the enterprise. A
single automated fax service can serve the entire enterprise, providing
electronic facsimiles of documents without requiring consumables such
as paper and ink cartridges and without delays involved with distribution
of physical document copies.
Automated monitoring and update services allow management of
maintenance and security functions without requiring direct access to
individual physical systems. Such virtualized services provide a mecha-
nism for direct support of thousands of distributed systems by a hand-
ful of support technicians, gaining efficiencies in personnel costs and
user downtime. Additional support functions rely on virtualization for
management over very large numbers of systems that may be distributed
across many sites in a global network. We will examine the use of sup-
port solutions such as automated system deployment using virtual system
images in Chapter 11.
Virtualized Applications
Virtualization of applications involves the creation of an application
package that is made available to users automatically or on demand.
Applications can be automatically deployed to a user's system based on
role membership, ensuring that the user's desktop experience remains
the same regardless of which system is used to access the enterprise net-
work. Coupled with virtualization of user file storage using a distributed
file share and/or user folder redirection, users need never know worry
about data and application availability. These services also allow rapid
