When comparing the replacement of an on-premise physical server with a virtual server and desktop replacement, it’s essential to consider the differences in infrastructure, management, costs, and flexibility.
Here’s a detailed comparison:
Virtual Server and Desktop Replacement
Virtual Server:
- Infrastructure:
- Cloud-based: Virtual servers are hosted in the cloud or a virtual environment managed by a third-party provider.
- Scalability: Easily scalable to meet changing demands without physical hardware constraints.
- Redundancy: High availability and redundancy, reducing the risk of downtime.
- Management:
- Outsourced Maintenance: Managed by the provider, reducing the need for in-house IT staff.
- Updates and Patches: Automatic updates and patches applied by the provider.
- Costs:
- Initial Investment: Lower initial investment compared to purchasing physical hardware.
- Operational Costs: Ongoing subscription fees based on usage, which can be more predictable.
- Flexibility:
- Accessibility: Accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, supporting remote work.
- Customization: Flexible configuration and customization options.
Desktop Replacement:
- Infrastructure:
- Virtual Desktops: Users access a virtual desktop environment, typically hosted in the cloud.
- Centralized Management: Easier to manage and update desktops from a central location.
- Management:
- Reduced IT Burden: Simplifies desktop management and reduces the need for physical maintenance.
- Centralized Updates: Centralized control over software updates and security patches.
- Costs:
- Lower Hardware Costs: Reduces the need for high-end physical desktops, as virtual desktops can run on thinner clients or older hardware.
- Operational Costs: Subscription-based pricing, which can be more predictable and scalable.
- Flexibility:
- Remote Access: Enables users to access their desktop environment from various devices and locations.
- Resource Allocation: Dynamically allocate resources based on user needs.
Replacing an On-Premises Physical Server
- Infrastructure:
- Physical Hardware: Involves purchasing and setting up new physical server hardware on-site.
- Scalability: Limited by physical hardware constraints, requiring additional purchases for scaling.
- Management:
- In-House Maintenance: Requires in-house IT staff for maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting.
- Manual Updates: Responsibility for applying updates and patches lies with the organization.
- Costs:
- Initial Investment: High initial cost for purchasing and setting up hardware.
- Operational Costs: Costs for power, cooling, physical space, and ongoing maintenance.
- Depreciation: Physical hardware depreciates over time, requiring eventual replacement.
- Flexibility:
- Limited Remote Access: Remote access capabilities depend on the setup and may require additional configurations.
- Customization: High degree of customization and control over the server environment.
Summary
Virtual Server and Desktop Replacement:
- Cloud-based and scalable Easy to scale with changing needs.
- Lower initial costs: Predictable subscription fees.
- Reduced maintenance: Managed by provider, less IT burden.
- Remote access: Accessible from anywhere, supporting remote work.
On-Premise Physical Server Replacement:
- Physical hardware: High initial investment.
- Greater control: Full control over hardware and environment.
- Higher maintenance: Requires in-house IT staff for upkeep.
- Limited scalability: Scaling requires additional hardware purchases.
Which Has the Better Advantage?
Virtual Server and Desktop Replacement generally offers better advantages in terms of scalability, cost-efficiency, and reduced maintenance burden, making it more suitable for businesses looking for flexibility and ease of management. However, organizations needing high control over their environment might prefer on-premise physical servers despite higher costs and maintenance requirements.
The choice between these options depends on your organization’s specific needs, budget, and IT strategy. Virtual solutions offer significant advantages in scalability and flexibility, while on-premise solutions provide greater control and customization.
What is a virtual server and desktop replacement?
Using a virtual server and desktop replacement is like renting computer power and storage from a company that manages everything online. Instead of buying and maintaining physical computers and servers in your office, you access these virtual ones through the internet. This approach is usually cheaper upfront, easier to scale up or down as your needs change and reduces the need for in-house IT maintenance. It also allows you to work from anywhere. On the other hand, replacing an on-premise physical server means buying and keeping the hardware in your office, which gives you full control but requires more money, space, and effort to maintain. Virtual servers offer more convenience and flexibility, making them a popular choice for many businesses.
What does a virtual environment look like?
All employees will be using their computers to remote into the virtual environment. This environment would be accessibly from anywhere and virtually any device.
How about future upgrades. What does my future look like? Just as we are providing you this proposal, it would no longer be necessary. It can be all handled by our support through planned downtime. The other advantage would be the virtual server allows upgrades, hardware and software, when you need them. There is no downtime or the pain of ordering and installing hardware. Plus, the added benefit is future software updates and upgrades are a breeze.
About the data center
The data center where your virtual environment is housed is in Los Angeles. This is operated in Tier 3+ Data Centers (outside of government agencies, these are the best). They offer a minimum of 3-points of failure (different fiber lines and phone), so the uptime is 99.99% (translates to approximately 2 hours of downtime over a year, which is minimal. Each Data Center is also certified with all the necessary certifications: SOC1. SOC 2, HIPPA, GDPR etc.
Tax and Other Benefits
Check with your tax specialist to the advantages of the virtual service as an operating expense versus the capital expense of purchasing the physical server hardware. Over the course of 36-months, your new physical server will calculate to approximately a similar monthly cost to the virtual server. Versus the cost of a virtual server, this physical service price would not include anything besides the server and migration labor whereas with a virtual server: higher machine specifications, full daily backup, power redundancy, internet redundancy, support, enterprise firewall, infrastructure, and monitoring are included.