Implementing a virtualized data storage solution at your business is no small feat. It’s a complicated process that requires immense amounts of technical expertise. Unfortunately, getting it up and running is only half the battle. For the most efficient solution possible, watch out for the three most common management issues outlined in this post.

Virtualization is great, but it is awfully confusing. And although the whole point of hiring a managed services provider is to hand off these issues to the experts, we believe a cursory understanding is helpful for everything, including bragging to competitors and making executive decisions.

Managed IT services providers recommend virtualization not because it is an IT business trend that everyone simply must ride, but because it is, quite, a smart way of managing your IT resources. Your organization needs to be more efficient and should be willing to move to the cloud to achieve it.

When containers were first implemented, the idea was to provide users a way to deploy applications without the need to open a new virtual machine, thereby saving resources and time. Since the advent of Docker the container trend has turned into an obsession with developers, which begs the question: How long until containers replace the virtual machines (VMs) altogether? The short answer is, never, and the reason has to do with performance.

One of the newest and potentially most innovative virtual desktop platforms for businesses is vSpace 10 Pro, which has recently been released. If you are considering transitioning your business over to this new business tool, you will first want to get to know some of the potential benefits and drawbacks of vSpace 10 Pro.

The evolution of software containers has changed the way virtual computing is realized. It has diminished the risks of malware and the trouble of portability by allowing software vendors to package their products into virtual containers that can run from any desktop machine, regardless of hardware of operating system.

Thanks to Microsoft’s latest announcement, cyber-criminals will have a harder time breaking into Windows systems. By dropping the Edge browser into a separate virtual container, workstations put distance between themselves and those who would do them harm under cover of the internet.

As virtualization becomes a household name for small- and medium-sized business owners, more and more services are being introduced. Hardware virtualization, storage virtualization, and even network virtualization all aim to capitalize on the trend of creating virtual versions of physical technology.

While virtualization still has a host of security advantages over its localized counterparts, it isn’t exempt from the attention of cyber attackers. Most recently, one of the industry’s leading software vendors, VMware, was forced to release a patch for a critical vulnerability that allowed underprivileged users to attain access to administrative rights.

Virtualization has taken the IT world by storm, and if you’re not up to speed on exactly what that means, it’s time to change that. The service is no longer a paragon reserved for enterprise-level businesses, and with Microsoft and Citrix’s most recent announcement, it will soon be more accessible than ever.