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Many small and mid-size companies are already reaping the benefits of virtualization in a relatively short amount of time. The key to their success was to add new servers incrementally. Ron Whitling, a systems engineer at a payroll outsourcing company, began using virtualization in 2004.
Although hesitant at first, Whitling soon realized how well it was working for his company. From then on, all the companies’ subsequent servers have been virtual. The company now has a total of 50 servers that run on 32 hardware boxes. While 29 boxes are physical servers, four virtualized boxes host 21 virtual servers.
Virtualization is what makes this possible. It allows more than one (virtual) server to run on a single physical computer. As IT manager at Own Bird Law Corp Stephen Bakerman explained, "To virtualize a physical server, you take another server that is normally used for another app; load on a virtualization program, then [load] a program like Virtual Iron that allows you to emulate little compartments on the physical server. You take the simulated computer and load your OS on it, and it runs in its own world independent of the other OSes that are also running on that box. Think of virtualization as creating little compartments on the physical server: One might run Windows, another may run Linux. If one compartment gets corrupted, nothing else is affected."
With so many servers and so much payroll data on them, it was imperative for Whitling that they could easily retrieve data should one of the servers have a problem. Virtualization makes it much easier to pull data up from a storage area network because all they have to do is pull it up onto another virtual server. This is key when it comes to backup and disaster recovery.
The success of this story is not only how virtualization has helped Whitling’s company thrive, but also the ROI he has seen. His company has saved at least $7,000 alone from not having to purchase hardware. The development team has also benefited because they often need a staging area. “We need four servers for development and four for staging. We couldn’t do that with physical servers because the cost would be prohibitive. With virtualization, we were able to do it all with one physical server VMware,” said Whitling. Perhaps he was uncertain about virtual servers in the beginning, but his success now is real.
Virtual Call Center?
The beauty of a virtual call center is that it is essentially like any other call center, except for the fact that it’s representatives are not limited to the confines of a specific geographic location. Employees of a virtual call center can work from anywhere, although most work from home. Working from home is convenient for both the employer and the employee. The lure for the employee is that they do not have to make a daily commute, they can have more flexible schedules, and they can have a casual dress code. For employers this means big savings on rent and utilities, and their pool of potential employees increases without geographical boundaries. Employers can also monitor their employees progress virtually and get detailed status reports.These dual benefits can also result in lower turnover rates.
Virtual call centers work as long as the employee has a high-speed internet connection. There are different technologies that can be used in virtualization, however, at Northwinds Contact Solutions we use voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which, simply stated, is transmitted through the internet rather than a phone line. This allows it to be more versatile because you can make and receive phone calls from anywhere as long as you have a reliable internet connection.
The virtual model is also useful for business’ whose calendar year may be more seasonal. This works well because they don’t have to worry about maintaining facilities that they won’t use on a year-round basis. Bricks and mortar businesses can benefit from having even a portion of their employees work virtually. Furthermore, the virtual model is an excellent option for people with disabilities who may not be able to leave their homes due to medical reasons.
The success of VoIP systems are evident in companies such as Jet Blue which has one of the largest call centers in the world which is not even a physical call center since all their call center representatives work from home.
Virtual Call Center Growth!
Virtualization is growing in all kinds of businesses as administrators realize the potential for themselves and their clients. According to a survey by Intel and Citrix, virtualization technologies are increasing on the desktop. What began as a relatively small survey was expanded to include 1,100 medium-to-large IT companies in order to see what type of client models and strategies were in place in order to increase business.
The findings indicate that some services are growing faster than others while some are tapering off. The growing services include app streaming, OS streaming, and client-side virtual containers. This is especially important because applications can be used without having to install an entire OS on the client computer. What does this mean? More control for the administrator and more mobility for the client. According to Clyde Hedrick, manager of client virtualization in the Business Computing Group at Intel,
“It gives them (administrators) control and mobility, but also give it more centralized control and ease in maintaining corporate images, so they get the best of both worlds.”
Specifically, this technology works by streaming content to the client from a central server. It is estimated that use of this will increase from 30% to 36%. With this expected growth rate, it’s surprising that in 2007 client-based virtual containers weren’t very widely used. However, their use is increasing rapidly in terms of percentage of devices used. By 2010 ,this will go from 4% to 8% of devices that use it. Hedrick is sure that server-based streaming will continue to expand due to the "desire for flexibility and control of IT assets like they are used to with server-based computing." Clearly virtualization is a must-have asset for anyone looking to participate and lead the business of tomorrow.