One server, many workloads
Most physical servers run at only a small fraction of their capacity. Buying a separate server for every application multiplies hardware, energy, licence and maintenance costs. And when a server fails, the work running on it stops.
Virtualisation runs many isolated virtual servers on a single physical server. Hardware is used more efficiently, and a new server can be ready in minutes. In a cluster of several physical servers, the virtual servers on a failed machine can be restarted on the others.
Which platform for which need?
There is no single right platform. Your existing investments, your team’s habits, your licence budget and your growth plans need to be assessed together. The three platforms we work with most often:
| Platform | Key strength | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| VMware vSphere | Mature management tools, a broad ecosystem and widely available expertise. | Organisations with an existing VMware investment that need advanced features. |
| Microsoft Hyper-V | Comes with Windows Server; a natural fit with the Microsoft environment. | Businesses that mainly use Windows servers. |
| Proxmox VE | Open source with no licence cost; an enterprise support subscription is optional. | Cost-focused teams open to Linux skills. |
The change in VMware licensing
Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, perpetual licences came to an end and the products were reorganised into subscription bundles. For many businesses, renewal costs have changed significantly. We help you decide, with the figures in hand, between staying on VMware, resizing your bundles or moving to another platform.
Private cloud and multi-tenant environments
For organisations that allocate resources to multiple departments or customers, we also assess private cloud platforms with self-service portals, such as VMware Cloud Director.
Virtualisation with Unna
- We listen first. We measure the actual resource usage of your existing servers and determine together how critical each application is.
- We plan together. We size the platform, server and storage hardware, network design and high-availability setup. We factor in licence costs from day one.
- We build and migrate. We migrate physical servers to virtual, or from one platform to another, on a planned schedule. Before each migration we take a backup, and afterwards we test the applications together.
- We stay by your side. We continue to monitor updates, capacity and performance issues after deployment.
Part of the whole
- On the backup side, we design virtual machine backup and fast recovery with Veeam alongside the deployment.
- With network and server monitoring, we spot resource bottlenecks before users notice them.
- We assess together whether your servers should stay in the office or in a data centre. If they stay in the office, we prepare the server room accordingly.
- With our server installation and management service, we take on operating system, update and security maintenance for your virtual servers.
Frequently asked questions
Is it risky to move from VMware to another platform?
Not when it is planned. We first take an inventory of all virtual machines, check compatibility and start with small, non-critical systems. A backup is taken before every step and a way back is kept open.
Does a small business need virtualisation?
If you have two or more server roles, usually yes. Running the file server, domain controller and application server as separate virtual machines on a single powerful server makes management and backup easier.
How many servers are needed for high availability?
You need at least two physical servers and a storage system both can access. Depending on your needs, we also recommend three-server hyper-converged setups.
