virtualization.info

This is the first entry of a multi series blog about the hidden challenges of virtualization.  The series will not go into details about the hypervisors, or the many management tools that exist today, but rather the challenges from an operational and cultural standpoint of introducing and implementing virtualization into your environment.

Introduction

Virtualization technology is present at every angle in today’s market.  These products have been tested and tried and they work, getting them installed in an environment and hosting virtual instances or managing or monitoring a virtual environment is actually a very simple process.  Sometimes picking the right products for a company and architecting the proper solution can be a challenge, but the technology works and typically it is not hard to install and configure.

If installing the software was all that had to be done, this truly would be a virtual world, but as you may have seen firsthand moving from a physical world to a virtual one has many challenges.  Most of them being hidden from plain sight of the eager technologist ready to save their company from the economic downturn. This series of blog entries will consist of experiences from those that have successfully navigated the virtual waters and learned their lessons along the way.

In the coming weeks, this series will discuss the steps for building the program and selling and implementing the technology.  The topics will include but not limited to:

• Data
• Risk
• Cost Models (i.e. chargeback’s, rate cards, etc.)
• Cultural Impacts
• Overall Operational Readiness (tools, processes, etc.)
• Data Center Implications
• Sales
• Communication

The topic for next week is data. Without data to understand what your current server environment looks like from a detailed inventory, depreciation or lease cycles, utilization information, cost of the current physical environment, etc.  This data is vital to being able to understand the opportunities in your environment and calculate important cost savings opportunities, without this data you cannot sell the solution and get buy in from upper management, which is key to your success.

Check back next week for the next entry…