Virtual v’s Physical Appliances – 4 Compelling Reasons for Change
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.
