What is virtualization?

virtualization technology OVHcloud

Benefits of virtualization

Virtualisation is a type of technology that enables users to create and run virtual machines or applications from a physical server. These virtual machines include the features and hardware power of the server they were created from, while offering a high degree of scalability.

OVHcloud has fostered close partnerships with global leaders in the field of virtualization technology for a number of years. Our ranges of dedicated bare-metal servers have been designed to underpin industry-leading virtualization software, including VMware’s benchmark offering. 

The server virtualization process involves installing a hypervisor on a bare-metal server, which allows you to segment and isolate its various resources into virtual machines. In other words, it converts physical resources into virtual ones, for more effective resource utilization, complementing the guaranteed resources of physical hardware by maximising flexibility, scalability and availability. This, in turn, will enhance application performance and service delivery, while helping build a robust IT infrastructure.

Scalability – simple IT growth Cost optimisation – maximise your ROI Flexibility – low risk/low cost experimentation

The ease of deployment of new servers can speed up your go-to-market for new products and services, and enhance your overall business agility.

It takes just a few steps in a user-friendly online control panel to provision new virtual servers, or redeploy resources to wherever they are needed (including as part of disaster recovery plans). This level of agility and manageability can be challenging to achieve with other hosting solutions.

All Scale and High Grade servers come with the choice of the industry-standard SSD discs or NVMe discs (for superior transfer speeds) at no additional cost, as is a basic configuration service, should you require it. All discs also now come with hot-swapping capabilities, making it possible to swap discs while your server is still running, ensuring downtime is kept to the absolute minimum during maintenance or upgrades.

Virtualization lets you do more with less. Thanks to consolidation, companies can dramatically reduce the number of physical machines they need and get more out of their server hardware. 

Fewer physical machines naturally means lower spending on hardware costs, for one thing, without compromising mission-critical applications or business continuity measures, such as backup and recovery.

Virtualization allows you to easily deploy and delete secure, isolated virtual environments, whenever you need them. This gives you more flexibility to test and innovate. 

Sysadmins and devops can experiment with different operating systems and apps on the same machine, take VM snapshots before making risky changes, and clone machines to avoid lengthy operating system installations. 
   
     

Virtualizing a dedicated server vs. pure bare metal

While a bare-metal dedicated server is still unmatched in terms of raw power, hardware virtualization is the answer whenever flexibility, speed and cost are top priorities.

With provisioning time reduced by as much as 70%, according to VMware, fast, low-cost solutions can be effortlessly deployed in virtual environments. Equally, sysadmins widely use server virtualization for temporary projects, testing, and troubleshooting.

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Tip 1. Select the right virtualization software 

The combination of VMware virtualization technology – including the vSphere, hypervisor and vRack – with OVH’s world-class bare metal server ranges, is the ideal foundation on which to build your own virtual infrastructure. However, OVHcloud servers can also be deployed with other virtualization software, including Zen and Proxmox. Some of these are free, while others are paid services, and each offers distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Tip 2. Don’t neglect your backup processes! 

If you are deploying your infrastructure on a standalone server, a secure, reliable backup solution is vital, to ensure you don’t acquire a single point of failure. OVHcloud’s dedicated server ranges are all supplied with 500GB of backup storage as standard, with the option of upgrading, should you need to scale out. 

Tip 3. Consider your path to the cloud

OVHcloud and VMware virtualization technology enables the smooth integration of cloud and bare-metal solutions, leading to sophisticated Hybrid Cloud infrastructures, which combine the benefits of multiple solutions in unique, tailored combinations. A virtualized server is therefore an ideal stepping stone to a fully-agile VMware Private Cloud environment, which includes advanced automation features and tools. 

Previous Use Case

Dedicated servers for Minecraft on OVHcloud

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has become a true global phenomenon, and the bestselling PC game of all time, with editions for almost all major platforms (even a pocket edition!), and more than 100 million registered users al over the world. With a vibrant online community, and a wide range of unique add-ons and mini games - such as Pixelmon and Skywars - there are more ways to play Minecraft than ever before. Seamless, responsive gameplay is now the industry standard, which all hosting providers offering private servers for Minecraft players (be they physical or virtual) are expected to deliver.

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Next Use Case

How does web hosting work with dedicated servers?

If you run a business online, such as an ecommerce website, your website will need to be highly dependable and capable of handling multiple, concurrent visits and transactions from across the globe. In order to provide your customers with this level of performance and security and develop a strong online presence, you need to carefully select a reliable hosting service, as this is what gets your site online, so others can access it.

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