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Let's assume you are a CEO working for a small company that needs business automation, but has insufficient IT resources. When you raise the question of a new business application, you get explained why it's not a good idea. You get told that installing a new application takes too much time and is too cumbersome. If you're fed up with getting excuses from your IT people, then it may be the time to try another route of getting your applications delivered as virtual appliances. If you've never heard about virtual appliances or have only a vague idea about them, this article will give you an idea of what it’s all about.

Definition of Virtual Appliances

The software market has created a certain level of hysteria around virtual appliances and rightly so - they are rapidly changing the way software is created, distributed, deployed, and run. Since their emergence, a multitude of definitions for virtual appliances has appeared on the Internet. The definition that we suggest is "Virtual Appliances are pre-built, pre-configured software solutions designed to provide a single service or perform a single function". An example of such function could be time tracking in your organization.

As the name suggests, virtual appliances can be compared to home appliances that are vastly deployed in everyday life. Just as a dishwasher integrates microprocessor, valves, pressure switches, water sprayers, heating coils, sensing devices and timers as a ready-to-use solution for washing and drying eating utensils, virtual appliances enable virtual machines to operate in unison as an integrated, pre-configured solution that provides an end-to-end service such as a time tracking application.

Virtual Appliances vs. Virtual Machines

It can be hard to figure out the difference between a virtual appliance and a virtual machine if you are not an IT professional, but it exists.

A virtual machine is a self-contained software program that emulates the actions of hardware system by using the computer's resources. Virtual machines do not have many disadvantages of physical PCs and can encase the whole PC environment in a single file. The only drawback of virtual machines is that users have to configure the virtual hardware, guest OS and guest application before putting a VM into use.

Just like VMs, virtual appliances also encapsulate an application, OS and virtual hardware. However, they are different from virtual machines in that they are delivered to end-users as ready-to-use solutions that remove the need for manual configuration of the VMs and OSs required to run the appliance.

Benefits if Virtual Appliances

So, why all the buzz over these single-function solutions? Isn’t it just a marketing gimmick of some kind? Certainly not. In fact, virtual appliances deserve much kudos for numerous benefits they offer to customers.

Quick Deployment

Virtual appliances can be easily attached to your existing virtual infrastructure and come preconfigured and ready to run. This is a huge advantage that has contributed greatly to the popularity of physical appliances and SaaS (software as a service). Customers can jump into the application right away without the need to install and configure an operating system first. This advantage will be of particular interest to small and midsize business users because they tend to struggle with software deployments with limited resources and IT proficiency.

Let's consider benefits of virtual appliances using Anuko Time Tracker appliance as an example. You simply download the appliance and deploy it in your existing VMware infrastructure. Depending on the type of your infrastructure you may need to convert it to another format. VMware provides a free converter for this. That's it. The time tracker is now ready to run. Point your employees to its URL to start tracking time. If you have been using another time tracking server (for example, the free one that Anuko provides) you can import your existing data into the appliance.

Single Vendor Support

Since the whole software stack comes from one source, customers have only one point of contact to resort to whenever support issues arise. In other words, software issues and configuration problems in the underlying operating system and the application itself are solved by one vendor.

Full Access to Your Data

With a virtual appliance, you can find comfort in knowing that you are in control of your data. Because you control your VMware infrastructure you have full access to the database used for keeping your time records. You can backup and restore your database whenever you need.

Management Made Easy

Customers avoid the need to manage or correct bugs in the OS and can focus on application performance. The management of the OS is the responsibility of the ISV.

Better Security

Because a virtual appliance is made up of the minimal set of components and OS files, it is smaller compared to a traditional operating system with applications. Hence, there are much fewer security vulnerabilities. What is more, because the virtual appliance operating system is stripped to the bone, most security vulnerabilities can't affect the appliance like they do with a general purpose OS. Due to these two factors, the frequency of applying security and update patches is reduced to a fraction of what it would be with an OS of a standard size.

Easy Scalability

It’s as easy as ABC to move virtual appliances to faster machines.

Affordability

Going virtual is cost-effective. Since virtual hardware doesn't cost much, it means that vendors who create appliances and customers who buy them save considerable amounts of money.

Less Need for Support

Easy management and increased reliability all translate into a less need for support from the ISV. As a result, customers also benefit. Because your virtual appliance functions properly, your IT staff won't have to burn hours of working time on the phone with the vendor to resolve problems.

Utilization of Existing Virtualization Functionality

All the basic features of a customer's virtual infrastructure (backup, disaster recovery, etc.) become automatically available to a virtual appliance.

Final Note

Virtual appliances are a good method of software delivery. With server virtualization becoming increasingly popular, virtual appliances are being held in high esteem for being a practical and trouble-free way to deliver applications for deployment in a virtual environment. If you haven't thought about deploying virtual appliances to minimize complexity in your company, you could be passing up an excellent business opportunity. By jumping on the virtual appliance bandwagon, your company could save time and money. Try business software solutions like Anuko Time Tracker Virtual Appliance designed to meet the needs of the modern work environment. It takes just a VMware infrastructure suite to to get it up and running.