Network virtualization solutions decouple network services from pre-existing and traditional hardware, allowing it to be provisioned virtually. Any hardware services can be recreated virtually, allowing for increased flexibility and agility. One of the most common use cases for network virtualization is to use multiple operating systems from a single device. This allows you to use applications that only run on specific devices, or to easily test new software across multiple products.
Management of hardware infrastructure can be complex and more time consuming than software deployments. It is also more costly – you will require multiple devices, all of which perform a very similar function. These costs and complications can be greatly reduced when implemented as software solutions. As software infrastructure, it is possible to create, provision, and manage any services with ease.
In this article, we will explore some of the top network virtualization solutions – by that, we don’t just mean hypervisors, but also backup solutions optimized for virtual environments, hyper-converged infrastructure, and virtual machines (VMs) with specific use cases, too. We will touch on each solution’s key features and suggest what type of organization would benefit most from their implementation.
