When Does Virtualization NOT Make Sense?

If virtualization can save you space and money, and boost efficiency, why wouldn’t you go for it?

C/D/H consultant Craig Eidelman says virtualization can:

Dramatically improve efficiency and the availability of resources and applications by using software on one server to run multiple operating system instances simultaneously.
Significantly reduce energy costs.
Reduce hardware expenditures through consolidation.
Make it possible to restore your system to a backup site.
Allow you to build a virtual infrastructure in which all of your servers can be configured for high availability. If one host goes down, the other systems detect the server has failed, and can restart the failed system. This keeps down-time to a minimum.

So why wouldn’t you rush to virtualization?

There are a few drawbacks:

Specific real-time voice and video, and large graphics applications, use too much CPU time. They need their own physical server.
Most small-to-medium business IT staffs have limited virtualization operations knowledge.
IBM AIX systems cannot be virtualized because of their specific hardware requirements.

Still, according to Eidelman, even relatively small businesses with just three servers can gain by virtualizing, especially if it’s already time to replace existing servers. A virtual server won’t add much to the price of a new server that’s already in your budget, and your organization can cherry-pick which apps and programs should go onto a virtualized server and which should not.

So while virtualization isn’t the answer for everything or everyone yet, “it is going to be the standard,” according to Eidelman.

Is virtualization right for you?

C/D/H has virtualized servers; for hospitals, school systems, and financial institutions. We can run a 30-day virtualization assessment of your organization’s systems, tracking performance and establishing specs for virtual infrastructure.

Bottom line: A server assessment will give you insight into whether your servers may be candidates for virtualization. If virtualization isn’t right for your organization, we can tell you that, too.