I left a place a year ago where I ran the lab. I remember the satisfaction of my replacement converting all the VMs into "real computers", and then triplicating the VLAN network I had with layer 1 replacements.
I'm pretty sure if he could have unspooled cat5 to everyone's home, he would have gotten rid of the VPN server.
So what's the benefit of VMs? I mean, I understand the underlying benefits of isolation and such, but for things that easily fit on small servers (i.e. single/double core small procs with <4GB RAM), why is it better to virtualize instead of having a physical server for that task? Assuming said task isn't vital enough to have several redundant systems?
I've gone both ways before, but I seem to be on the other end of the spectrum and prefer small cheap hardware over VMs when possible.
Not trying to argue or anything, just curious for someone else's point of view.
Those small things are actually the ideal use case for VMs.
Imagine wanting to spin up a new server so you go and buy that small tower, bring it back, and hook it up.
Now imagine using a VM where you literally go onto a webpage and click a button to provision the same amount of resources.
Additionally, most hardware sits idle most of the time. When you're using tons of towers, it's likely that most of them will sit under 50% load 90+% of the time. With a VM setup, the hypervisor can balance that better so you can get better utilization of your hardware.
I'm pretty sure if he could have unspooled cat5 to everyone's home, he would have gotten rid of the VPN server.