Server virtualization has rapidly become a mainstream technology with easily identifiable benefits such as improved server utilization, reduced hardware and management costs, reduced IT footprint, lower power and cooling consumption, and improved disaster recovery/business continuity (DR/BC) practices. It is now routinely viewed as a cornerstone of the automated, dynamic data center of tomorrow.
It is easy to make a business case for the technology, particularly in the current economic environment. A recent IDC study concludes that the average company deploying basic virtualization could see an ROI of 472 percent and payback in less than a year, including deployment time. Beyond reducing hardware and software costs, IDC notes that virtualization improves IT staff efficiency and end-user productivity, reduces downtime and speeds the performance of business applications.
“Customers view virtualization as both a strategic investment and a proven way to reduce costs,” said Tod Nielsen, chief operating officer at VMware. “Customers understand that virtualization is about much more than just consolidation. It’s about manageability, flexibility and being smart about how they run their businesses.”
Be Prepared
However, Gene Ruth, research analyst for Burton Group, notes that there are challenges in shifting from an existing physical server environment to a virtualized one — particularly if organizations fail to plan properly and set realistic expectations.
“Server virtualization is a transformative technology, but it has the potential to add to the operational complexity and risk by using unfamiliar technology and requiring disparate operational procedures and architectures,” said Ruth.
While virtualization delivers extraordinary ROI, organizations must be prepared to incur some up-front costs. They may need to upgrade aging equipment to gain the long-term benefits of virtualization, and there will be assorted expenses for virtualization licenses and management software. Even the so-called “free” hypervisors aren’t truly free — they lack the management tools and management interfaces required to perform essential tasks such as dynamic provisioning, live migration and resource pooling.
Robust management features are essential to effective server virtualization. The ease with which virtual machines (VMs) can be generated and deployed creates the risk of uncontrolled proliferation resulting in wasted resources and additional IT burdens. That can be avoided with a high-quality orchestration platform that allows automation of the entire VM lifecycle from requisition to de-commissioning.
Moving Forward
These challenges don’t need to be deal-breakers, however. Organizations that have a realistic view of the potential challenges and pitfalls, exercise caution, plan properly and develop a clear strategy can realistically expect to craft an infrastructure that makes exceptionally efficient use of hardware and network assets while also simplifying or automating many of today's administrative tasks. To help ensure a successful implementation:
Set Goals and Expectations: Document as clearly as possible the desired objectives, such as reducing server sprawl, maximizing utilization, expanding the development environment or improving disaster recovery. Research and understand the challenges created in a virtualized environment and prepare for them. Establish a long-term perspective in which virtualization is just the first step in a multi-year data center transformation process that includes retiring hardware that is no longer needed.
Obtain Buy-In: Solicit input from key stakeholders, including storage, networking, information security, facilities managers, application developers and end-users. It is critical to demonstrate that virtualization can be accomplished without hindering applications performance and without diminishing service to end-users.
Assess the Current Infrastructure: Identify all the existing physical servers and document their current CPU, memory, capacity and utilization levels to identify which servers could and should be consolidated. Determine if there are common applications running on a number of different servers. Consider whether the number of applications is increasing and if the capacity required for those applications is likely to continue expanding.
Understand Licensing Implications: Sometimes, the original licensing terms and conditions can change once an application has been migrated to the virtualized environment. In some cases, independent software vendors require additional licenses for each instance of a virtual machine running on one physical server.
Choose Wisely: When choosing a platform, think “value” rather than “price.” When evaluating products, check costs based on a per-socket basis, and don’t forget to check the availability and cost of essential features such as migration, load balancing, recovery, snapshot support and backup management. If internal IT staff is limited, deployment features and ease of use will be particularly important attributes.
“As more enterprises begin to move virtualization into production environments, they will experience challenges beyond managing physical and virtual resources,” said Noemi Greyzdorf, IDC Research Manager. “In order to reap the benefits of server virtualization and drive down capital costs, enterprises need solutions (that) manage the overall architecture, storage resources and operational processes to reduce complexity and increase efficiencies in managing physical and virtual environments.”
Server virtualization is not without challenges, but with proper planning it can address many of the IT challenges that have been intensified by the current economy. It allows organizations to quickly adapt to change, capitalize on new opportunities and achieve greater business alignment while controlling costs. With that type of value proposition, it’s not a question of “if” but “how” server virtualization should be implemented.