Virtualisation

Virtualisation is a technology allowing companies to consolidate server infrastructure, desktop infrastructure, network assets and storage / backup resources' to drive major business efficiency, maximise the performance of these business assets and build an environmental friendly (Green) IT infrastructure. Virtualisation is delivering efficiency gains while creating vendor independent platforms that now work seamlessly together, as they are no longer constrained by traditional business and IT processes. These efficiency gains are making virtualisation a key part of any growing organisations IT strategy.

Virtualisation is a real tool for the consolidation of systems and applications. However, the implementation of virtualisation requires a detailed analysis of the existing environment. Tollfree Networks has invested in the relevant skills, technology and tools that enable us to work with our customers to deliver a complete end-to-end virtualisation solution that embrace the following work methodology:

• Business and technical assessments

• Solution design and recommendations

• Proof of concept

• Solution centre testing

• Implementation and configuration

• Applications and data migrations 

• Tests plan and optimisation

• Capacity planning and thin provisioning

• Operational procedures optimisation

• Service and support

At Tollfree Networks, we specialise in Server Virtualisation, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Disaster Recovery (DR) solutions based upon technologies from leading technology vendors, which can be used to address these issues.

Server Virtualisation

• Server consolidation - use less, more powerful servers to run you current infrastructure as virtual machines, significantly reducing power, cooling and maintenance costs
  

• Reduce administration and management overheads of the server infrastructure 
  

• Make servers highly available 
  

• Deploy new servers to your environment in minutes rather than hours or days 
  

• Leverage server virtualisation technologies such as Hot backups , High availability, live migrations and many more 
  

• Server containment - new servers can be deployed easily and quickly giving flexibility to deploying entire environments such as test and development or User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Desktop Virtualisation (VDI)

• Significantly reduce power, cooling and maintenance requirements of your desktop infrastructure 
  

• Deliver desktop access quickly and securely from any location removing the need for fat clients 
  

• Significantly reduce the TCO for IT support and "to the desk fixes" 
  

• Significantly reduce the complexity of application and OS management 
  

• Leverage server virtualisation technologies such as Hot backups ,High availability, live migrations and many more 

Disaster Recovery (DR)

• Provide an entire replica of production environments in the event of a disaster occurring 
  

• Replicate physical or virtual machines from one environment to another in a variety of ways
  

• Entire infrastructures can be available within minutes of losing a site with the correct solution 
  

• Replicate physical servers to a virtual environment to make them available in the event of a DR scenario occurring 

Implementing Virtualisation

As an independent company with no preferred software or hardware vendors a completely bespoke, individual solution can be created. Our aim is to deliver high-end, tailored solutions to help businesses address some of today's challenges found in and around the server, desktop and DR environments. We offer our customers a proven process for implementing virtualisation solutions. These processes draw on best practices and established methodologies to guide you through the three key stages of a virtualisation initiative: Planning, Deployment and migration, and Operation.

Phase 1: PLAN

• Complete Infrastructure Audit
  

• Identify virtualisation candidates
  

• Gather inventory and performance data
  

• Agree level of server redundancy required
  

• Define recommended virtualisation platform
  

• Capacity plan to define consolidation ratio for performance and ROI
  

• Determine appropriate hardware platform (Servers, Storage, Networking)
  

• Design storage and network strategy for virtual environment
  

• Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration Planning

Phase 2: DEPLOY AND MIGRATE

• Build and Assemble Racks (Servers, Networking, Storage)
  

• Deploy virtual platform
  

• Create backups of each virtualisation candidate
  

• Begin P2V migration
  

• Reuse or recycle any retired systems

Phase 3: OPERATIONS

• Implement solution to monitor both the physical server and virtual machines
  

• Deploy maintenance, backup and disaster recovery for virtual environment
  

• Implement or update current Change Management procedures 
  

• Audit the end user experience 
  

• Complete all documentation 
  

• Agree project sign-off

  Interested in understanding what benefits virtualisation can bring to your business? Please give us a call on 01223 393520 or email us at solutions@tollfreenetworks.com