Virtual Environments
Gone are the days when a server is required for everything. Servers can be sliced and diced and one physical machine can be multiple powerful virtual servers. How are these configurations maintained? Can they be validated? Are they robust? Leave the hard work to the experts and carry on in your own field of expertise.
Virtual Infrastructure
Redundancy and availability are high up on the agenda when designing a virtual infrastructure but the hardware platform must also be sufficiently powerful such that resources are available for all VMs on a physical server to be hosted adequately to suit their business need.
Similarly to a real PC, a virtual machine has a CPU, RAM and a Network card - but they are software, not hardware. Resources are allocated to run these by the real computer.
Dedicated Servers
Complicated? You bet, necessary? Definitely, nowadays with fast networks and data centre space being sparse to say the least VMs are very popular, in addition for applications that require a dedicated server but use isn't too intensive the application is more and more suited to a virtual machine.
VMs are also easy to configure in the context of clusters as well. Clusters are a collection of computers that for whatever reason form one logical machine to the outside world. Redundancy and high availability are key ingredients of a clustered system.
Single Physical Platform
How is this managed in the quality world? Multiple computers on a single physical platform or across multiple physical platforms, this is virtual environments and they are incredibly useful, not least for saving valuable data centre racking space but they usually boot up very quickly too.
Let the experts help you to document your virtual environments, manage your configurations and provide robust auditable materials that will support your manufacturing and business processes.