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How desktop, storage, server, and even network virtualization help IT keep its edge

How desktop, storage, server, and even network virtualization help IT keep its edge

Usability and security have often felt like opposite ends of the spectrum, and some of the worst security blunders have happened because someone — often someone too high up or too low on the pole to be noticed — chose the former over the latter. But as the cloud and consumerization push into the world of IT, vendors are increasingly focused on trying to offer professionals the best of both worlds through virtualization.

Almost everyone will be familiar with desktop virtualization at this point, which can help cut down administrative hassles while helping ensure a consistent user experience.

But IT professionals wary of handing over control to Amazon or Microsoft Azure might find that virtualizing deeper down the stack can provide some of the same benefits of the cloud, ranging from flexibility in scaling up to easier management and monitoring.

In fact, for many virtualization is a bridge the cloud, as which explains VMware's embrace of it.

On Monday, at VMworld, they announced VMware Cloud Foundation, which integrates compute, network and storage virtualization, helping reduce deployment time from months to hours in many scenarios.

It also helps give IT managers more assurance that whatever their strategy, they'll have some portability about where things are hosted. This is particularly important given how challenging it can be to calculate cloud costs (check out this article for tips on cloud cost calculations).

How are you using virtualization in your environment? Let us know in the comments, or share your story with us directly via email.

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