A virtualized environment also meets the requirement of offsite backup storage and geographical compliance requirements. Virtualization is also important to an organization with a mobile workforce because it enhances data concentration hence posing less risk of data loss compared to having the data dispersed on removable media, portable computers or embedded devices while out in the field. If the organizations security staff carefully constructs applications that restrict access and services to only the tasks and data that an employee requires to accomplish a given activity, then data exposure will be limited in the event that a device has been compromised.

On the other hand, a virtualized environment possess disadvantages to the business environment that may see to it that the organizations treasured business secrets are compromised and operations may come to a standstill.

Virtualization technologies may bring about system complexities to an organization's computer facilities compared to the traditional non-virtualized environment. Virtualization components are many and varied besides the general computing requirements such as data storage and deployed applications resulting to a large attack surface. The employees with no computer studies background therefore find it difficult to operate the facilities should they encounter setbacks.

Virtualization technologies also pose serious underlying complications because organizations typically share components and resources with other consumers that are unknown. Innovations on the technology continue to increase each and every year to enhance sophistication. Having to share infrastructure with unknown business clients can be a major setback for certain applications. This requires a high level of assurance relating to the strength of the security system used for logical separation which would incur most operation costs for the organization.

Virtualized technologies services are delivered over the internet meaning that administrative interfaces used to manage and self-service accounts and also administrative interfaces used to access deployed services are exposed. Data and applications that are virtualized face increased risk from network threats that were previously defended when they could be accessed from the organization's intranet. In some occasion when the internet is slow or is not available at all, the performance and quality of services delivered by the organization becomes an issue and customers suffer from not receiving services while the organization suffers losses.

Adoption of virtualization technologies in an organization implies that responsibility and control of information that was directly under the organizations control is now transferred. This situation makes the organization dependent on the virtualization technology provider to carry out activities that require the participation of both parties, for example, the continuous monitoring and accident response. This situation also poses a challenge on maintaining accountability hence interfering with other advantages discussed above.

From a business prospective, discuss the pre-deployment and post-deployment support requirements to operate a virtualized environment.

Business organizations considering adopting a virtualized environment need to consider how existing application are performing in a non-virtualized environment, how applications are likely to perform when moved into a virtualized environment in order weigh the foregone cost of adopting a virtualized environment and finally how the application will perform once they are operating in a virtualized environment Kusnetzky, 2011.

Physical requirements needed to implement a virtualized technology include a workstation, user traffic, application server with live application and infrastructure element being tested.

Pre-deployment support requirements

As discussed earlier, virtualization involves the moving of already existing servers and applications to a new server where new virtual servers will be established. This means the user access could be achieved over WAN'S with restricted packet loss, bandwidth and latency issues. When the business organization has realized how application is running in the current environment, then the next step...

One also needs to consider PCI option card placement, update all component firmware, check for detective hardware components, and test for defective memory modules and check for any vendor support materials. The process may be time consuming but greatly reduces the chances of unplanned service due hardware failure at post deployment. The capacity for the organization to conduct pre-deployment testing can be used as a strategy to convince decision makers about the benefits of adopting a virtualized environment.
Post deployment support requirements

Once a business organization has implemented the virtualization technology, it is important to check on the performance gains being recorded. Different technologies can be used to monitor performance and response times once applications have been moved such as iTrinegy APPQoS that could also be used to monitor the usage application as well.

Differences between three leading virtualization platforms in the industry

VM ware is the pioneer in the field of virtualization with the latest version vSphere being the fourth hence boosting a number of strengths. To begin with the version has a small footprint as it only needs about 60MB disk space to get it running as compared with other platforms that will definitely utilize more that the mentioned disk space. VMware also has a good record that has been established and proven. The platform is also highly compatible with most operating systems and is guaranteed to work as compared to other systems that rely on existing operating systems creating the notion of a lot of work before successfully installing any virtualization platform. The Microsoft Hyper-V is enjoying increased popularity because of its ease to install especially when one has the windows server 2008 software Marshall, Reynolds, & McCrory, 2006.

Individuals who are already familiar with the windows shop also have the opportunity to remain native to their service provider. The new management console allows an individual to control multiple Hyper-V servers. Xen is the leading open source virtualization platform freeing one from the responsibility of dealing with virus scans and patches. One of the best features of the Xen platform is the power to set priorities and add in disk and network utilization among other functions. It is easy to deploy with an enormous maximum disk size.

Conclusion

Virtualization technologies present vital features giving it the capability to be used across a wide range of applications. Virtualization has been in existence for about sixty years and offers area for further research around the globe today. Business organizations are adopting the technology because of the numerous benefits that arise in the information technology department and profits in general Menken, 2008.

The available platform are wide ranging so one can choose which one provide maximum output. Future research is required to study wide ranging taxonomies such as multi-layered technologies and fit them in the existing taxonomy.