Ease of Deployment

Ease of deployment is a key requirement for any data centre or organization. The ability to be able to migrate an image onto a new virtual appliance cannot be overstated. Each virtual image contains all the necessary components to deliver the required service or function. The image can be effortlessly deployed to any virtual machine anywhere.

Installing a new appliance in a data centre or branch office can take days if not weeks. The hardware must be delivered in the first instance. Secondly, it must be pre-staged and then shipped to its eventual destination. It is often the case that the person performing the initial configuration or pre-staging is not the same person performing the physical installation. This can raise several issues. Most notably, changes in physical topography can render the pre-staged configuration obsolete. Also, it is often the case that the configuration must be performed by a specialist. This means that the physical appliance must be installed at the data centre prior to the arrival of the specialist. It is possible to streamline this in large data centers but it is still cumbersome and generally not available to smaller organizations.

By way of contrast, utilizing a virtual server application such as VMware decouples the server deployment and the deployment of one or more virtual appliances. Often in the case of a branch office, the server is deployed by the hardware provider and is up and running almost immediately. Virtual appliances can be deployed as soon as they become available. Any specialist knowledge can be applied without the need for scheduling. No issues arise from the physical topology as little or no change is required.

Being able to deploy a new email anti spam security gateway such as SpamTitan simply by attaching the image to the virtual server application (such as VMware) allows an organization to bring up the new security system in a matter of minutes instead of hours or even days.