Server
virtualization isn't just for big companies. Entry-level virtualization tools
are free or low-cost, and there are many benefits to virtualization (including
saving money). It’s not a question of “if” you should virtualize your servers; it’s
a question of “when.” In this article, I outline five steps you should take to
determine when to virtualize your servers.
There
are a number of server virtualization solutions available today. However, this
article isn’t about which solution to choose. Many virtualization questions are
“solution agnostic,” and the question of “when” to virtualize your servers is
one of them.
So, if
you haven’t started using virtualization or you haven’t fully virtualized your
IT environment, I recommend the following five steps to determine when you
should make that move.
#1 – Understand the Benefits of going virtual
You
don’t want to undertake a virtualization project without understanding why you
are making this effort. Most of us have to justify a project like
virtualization to a manager, director, VP or CIO. Even if you don’t have to do
that, you should be able to answer the “why” question for yourself with an
answer that’s more concrete that “because it’s the next big thing.” Below is a
list of reasons why most administrators feel compelled to virtualize their
server infrastructure:
• Save
time – Administering virtualized servers over physical servers can save a huge
amount of time.
• Save
money – Any way you measure it, virtualization comes out as a cost-saving
proposition. Dollars are saved in less administrative time, fewer
infrastructure requirements and less energy utilization.
•
Simplify management – Virtualization enables the use of advanced features like
resource optimization, high availability and point-in-time snapshots of
servers.
•
Recover from disaster – Having a reliable disaster recovery plan is essential
for ensuring business continuity. Virtualization offers hardware independence
and decreased recovery time in case of a disaster or failover. Once you and
your management team are convinced that virtualization is the right decision
for your company, move on to the next step.
#2 – Evaluate a virtualization solution.
There
are many virtualization solutions available today. In addition to VMware
vSphere 4, you can evaluate Microsoft Hyper-V or Xen/Citrix, to name a few. If
you choose to evaluate or analyze all of them, you may be spinning your wheels.
To date, VMware has held the dominant position in the virtualization market
space, with more than 150,000 customers globally. No one else in the
marketplace has come close to matching the maturity, breadth of offerings,
reliability, oradoption rate of VMware. Many times, all that the competition
can offer is a claim of a lower price tag, but make sure that you’re doing
an
apples-to-apples cost comparison – more on that later..
When
selecting the right virtualization solution for your company, consider the
following:
• Don’t
choose the “newest” or “cheapest” solution just because they are new and
seemingly inexpensive.
• Look
for a solution that has been around for a long period of time to ensure the
technology has been tested with a variety of applications
• Look
for a solution that has been proven in production IT environments
•
Choose a solution that offers flexibility and options to fit the needs of your
company
In my
opinion, two solutions meet these criteria. They are VMware ESXi Free Edition
and the VMware vSphere platform. The first is available for free and is a good
way to start your company on the path toward virtualization. The second product
can be evaluated for free and purchased as a low-cost package solution for
smaller deployments.
While
these two solutions each have their own unique fit, they both have been proven
by businesses of all sizes over a long period of time and they have the most to
offer of any virtualization solution available today.
The
only way to truly get comfortable with virtualization is to try it for yourself
on your own servers and perform tests in your environment. Download and
evaluate any solution before making a purchasing decision.
#3 – Determine if applications are going to work well with virtualization.
One of
the concerns I have heard from administrators who haven’t virtualized their
servers yet is that they believe their applications might not be “virtualization
friendly.” While there may be a few cases in which this is true, the numbers of
servers that can’t be virtualized are small compared to the vast majority of
all servers that can.
In my
experience, if you understand the application, the majority of the time, you
won’t have any trouble consolidating a physical server into a virtualized
environment. I have successfully virtualized Citrix Server, Exchange 2007
Servers, graphical applications, database servers, and other critical
enterprise applications. If you are concerned that your virtual servers won’t
offer the performance that your applications demand visit the VMware Virtual Appliance
Marketplace (http://www.vmware.com/appliances/). Virtual appliances are
pre-built, preconfigured, ready-to-run enterprise applications packaged with an
operating system inside a virtual machine.
#4 – Analyze the cost of virtualizing your server infrastructure.
In
Step #1, I mentioned that you can save your company money by virtualizing your
servers. As most of us work for businesses, and businesses are in the business
of maximizing profits, it only makes sense that before undertaking a virtualization
project, you should analyze the cost and potential savings (the ROI). For those
companies who value ROI, I anticipate that the ROI of virtualization will
always be there, but the question may be how long does it take to achieve that
ROI? When I get asked that question, I recommend that you calculate your ROI to
virtualize your servers, with the VMware ROI calculator. For example, when I
used it, it showed that by consolidating and virtualizing 20 physical servers
down to 3, you could save $200,000 in server, related hardware and power,
cooling and real estate costs and $85,000 in IT staff operating costs over 3
years1. Plus, if
you have more physical servers to start with, the cost savings are even
greater. Furthermore, the typical payback period, or amount of time to break
even on the investment, for a 20 server consolidation project is 1 month. What
other IT projects can you say that about? Even if you don’t use numbers, I
believe that the cost savings of virtualization is obvious. Virtualization
requires:
•
Fewer servers
•
Fewer infrastructure costs – cooling, UPS, generator
• Less
spent on electricity
• Less
space needed for you IT infrastructure
• Less
time spent administering servers
•
Faster response to business needs
If you
can install a product that does all those things, it will eventually (and
probably very quickly) pay for itself. That’s what I call “a no-brainer.” One
point to note about comparing costs among virtualization vendors. Some vendors
like Microsoft and Citrix will position their solutions as “free” compared with
VMware. We know that no solution that you rely on to stand up your production
infrastructure can really be “free.” Those vendors have made their hypervisors
free but shifted the cost to their management tools, which are necessary to use
when managing a production environment. VMware has introduced a method for
comparing “cost per application,” which they position as the true way to
measure cost in an apples-to-apples way. I would encourage you to explore that
cost comparison further.
#5 – Analyze the time and skill needed to virtualize
your
server infrastructure I don’t want to minimize the time and
skill required to create a virtual environment. Depending on the scope of the project,
it could be very quick or it could be a more significant undertaking. If I were
to estimate the time to learn about VMware vSphere and consolidate 20 physical servers
with “typical” applications onto two or three VMware ESX Servers, it would look
like this:
•
Learn about VMware vSphere – via reading, video training,
or a
VMware class – 1 week
•
Install and configure VMware vSphere – 1 day
•
Perform test server consolidations using VMware
Converter–
1 day
•
Convert all 20 physical servers to virtual servers and
consolidate
– 3 days
Total
time = 2 weeks
Again,
this is just a generalization with lots of assumptions made. However, as you
can see, being able to learn about virtualization, get your virtual
infrastructure installed and configured, and consolidate 20 servers in a matter
of 2 weeks is a relatively small investment of time for an effort that yields
huge benefits and fast ROI for your company. Keep in mind that VMware ESXi—the
company’s free solution that provides basic server optimization functionality—requires
even less time. You may even choose to work with a VMware Partner who can
assess your requirements and install and configure VMware virtualization
software for you. Make the move when you’re ready
Virtualization
isn’t just for big companies anymore. There is no doubt that you should
virtualize your servers – it’s simply a matter of when. I believe that the time
to virtualize is now, but you should make that call for yourself. Be sure to
follow the five steps outlined in this article before you make a purchasing
decision.
