Image courtesy of Larsz via the Creative Commons license

Your high school English teacher may have instilled a negative image of redundancy in your brain, but take our word for it – redundancy is a really good thing when it comes to your network infrastructure.

Server virtualization, the act of running multiple OS instances on a single computer, is hot right now. But if you spend a few minutes thinking about the possible negative implications of this practice, you can come up with an all too common scenario that can happen if you don’t have a good IT consultant. Imagine: a small business may need a mail server, a Web server, and a DNS server. With virtualization, you can put them all on one machine and you’re good to go. But wait – what if that one machine fails? BIG FAIL. Your entire business is taken down in one fell swoop.

The way to avoid this problem is redundancy, a word any good IT manager understands well. Having only one server is good for your pocketbook, but only if its up and running. To avoid going down hard, install a second physical machine on the network that is a virtual duplicate of your other machine. If one dies, the other is still online for a seamless backup. Ask your consultant if they can help you to be more redundant.