Page 205 - E-Bussiness and E-Commerce Management Strategy, Implementation, and Practice

M03_CHAF9601_04_SE_C03.QXD:D01_CHAF7409_04_SE_C01.QXD 16/4/09 11:09 Page 172

172 Part 1 Introduction

associated with upgrading and configuring new software on users’ client computers and servers
are dramatically decreased.

Activity 3.6 Opportunities for using web services by a B2B company

Purpose
To highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the web services approach.

Question
Develop a balanced case for the managing director explaining the web services
approach and summarizing its advantages and disadvantages.
Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.uk/chaffey

Virtualization

Virtualization Virtualization is another approach to managing IT resource more effectively. However, it is
The indirect provision of mainly deployed within an organization. VMware was one of the forerunners offering virtual-
technology services
through another resource ization services which it explains as follows (VMware, 2008):
(abstraction). Essentially
one computer is using its The VMware approach to virtualization inserts a thin layer of software directly on the
processing and storage computer hardware or on a host operating system. This software layer creates virtual
capacity to do the work
of another. machines and contains a virtual machine monitor or ‘hypervisor’ that allocates hardware
resources dynamically and transparently so that multiple operating systems can run
concurrently on a single physical computer without even knowing it.
However, virtualizing a single physical computer is just the beginning. VMware offers a
robust virtualization platform that can scale across hundreds of interconnected physical
computers and storage devices to form an entire virtual infrastructure.
They go on to explain that virtualization essentially lets one computer do the job of multiple
computers, by sharing the resources of a single computer across multiple environments. Vir-
tual servers and virtual desktops let you host multiple operating systems and multiple
applications.
So virtualization has these benefits:

Lower hardware costs through consolidation of servers (see mini case below)
Lower maintenance and support costs
Lower energy costs
Scalability to add more resource more easily
Standardized, peronalized desktops can be accessed from any location, so users are not tied
to an individual physical computer
Improved business continuity.

The mini case study gives an example of these benefits.