When comparing various virtualization products, the following three areas are critical to consider.
Ability to Achieve Consolidation
Running four or five virtual machines per physical server may seem wonderful, but you can achieve an even greater level of consolidation. It’s feasible as you become more adept at virtualization to consolidate as many as 25 virtual machines per physical server. Therefore, any virtualization products (e.g., software, network components, data storage arrays, physical servers) you purchase should be capable of handling that increased consolidation.
Additional Benefits Beyond Consolidation and Cost Reduction
In the beginning, you will be understandably and correctly focused on the obvious benefits of workload simplification and cost-saving efficiencies. But don’t lose sight of the long term. To ensure that you have the functional capability needed to grow, buy products that are mature, offer a wide range of features, and allow for easy addition of services. The ideal virtualization products will be designed for expansion of your server virtualization effort in areas such as self-service provisioning, disaster replication, and cloud outsourcing.
Service Delivery
Buy from vendors who provide installation, upgrades, and ongoing support. And look for vendors who understand your specific business environment, needs, and goals. You want a vendor that will genuinely partner with you to implement server virtualization, because the vendor’s experience can prove instrumental to the ultimate success of your initiative.
Key Points
- Carefully evaluate the virtualization products and vendors on the market because your buying decisions will be critical in achieving your goals.
- Choose products that are capable of supporting a high level of consolidation.
- Pay attention to how well products will be able to accommodate expansion of virtualization over time
- Work with vendors that stick around after the sale to facilitate successful implementation and to provide continued support.