Photo: Jim Russell, vice president of public sector, Symantec/Photo courtesy of Symantec

As budgets tighten and public-sector agencies face increased scrutiny due to spending, virtualization is transforming the endpoint and data center by increasing utilization rates, reducing energy consumption and driving down costs.

As a result, many public-sector agencies are moving outside their comfort zones to explore virtualization as a viable alternative. The goal of virtualization and other emerging technologies is centered on doing more with less - a promise that is hard to ignore in these economic times. The following are benefits government agencies can expect when implementing virtualization:

1. Increasing Cost Efficiency

Server and endpoint virtualization offers government agencies a streamlined, automated and cost-effective way to deploy and support both computing resources and users, while also meeting regulatory requirements for privacy and reporting.

A recent study by MeriTalk, a federally focused, online IT network, found that virtualization could bring $13.3 billion in savings, including $1 billion from the U.S. Army, $880 million from the U.S. Department of Justice and $592 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition, Andi Mann, research director at Enterprise Management Associates, noted that 90 percent of enterprises report real and measurable return on investment (ROI) from virtualization in general. This translates into renewed opportunity for agencies to leverage virtualization as a cost-saving measure.

However, simply saying virtualization helps users be more productive and reduces IT management costs doesn't mean it actually does. Below are some examples of how virtualization technology can help businesses save money today:

• Optimizing license management: Tracking license compliance and reharvesting unused licenses can be a significant drain on IT resources, and allowing unused licenses to sit idle can be even costlier. Endpoint virtualization, in addition to providing all the benefits of virtualization, can also give IT the ability to centrally manage and dynamically track licenses and ensure license compliance.
• Reducing user downtime related to application conflicts: Because virtualized applications are isolated both from other applications and the underlying operating system, the need for predeployment testing is eliminated, and the processes associated with application deployment, version changes and updates are significantly accelerated. All of this equates to improved application maintenance, reduced supporting costs and also increased user productivity due to less downtime waiting for IT to update applications and solve conflicts.
• Lowering user downtime due to application recovery: Occasionally an application crashes despite being isolated from the rest of the system due to an outside cause. For example, a Web browser that encounters an issue while being used to do research online. With endpoint virtualization, that Web browser can be virtualized so that the problem that application encounters will not affect the rest of the system. Additionally the program can simply be reset and returned to the normal operating state without having to be reloaded. This can even be done by the end-user, allowing instant self-remediation.

2. Mitigating Vulnerabilities Through Better Security

The ability to telework assists government agencies in becoming more efficient. According to a December 2008 government study on telework, most federal agencies' telework programs have either expanded or held steady since 2006.

However, this same ability can pose security challenges. As agencies across the government are directed to keep their communications transparent, they must find a way to keep the information secure.

Agencies are finding that a well managed workspace is a secure workspace. Technology such as virtualization helps IT departments in the public sector set up solid endpoint controls. Leaving security to users can be dangerous so having controls in place to secure agency information is essential.

However, protection solely on the endpoint is comparable to one hand clapping. We