Are you Read for Virtualization?

Virtualization is very popular these days and most of my clients are looking as some form of virtualization.


With tight budgets and the need to provision servers quickly, virtualization helps with both.

Virtualization can help cut costs, allows for an easy disaster recovery plan and allows IT resources to be more efficient and flexible.

Virtualization also allows you to quickly deploy servers, increase application availability. It will also allow you to ease the deployment of new technologies.

Keys to Success



To be successful, make sure you have a plan on why and how you are going to virtualize. Up front planning will allow you to pick the proper platform and correctly plan your virtualization project.

Below is a checklist to make sure you are asking the proper question and plan for a successful project.

Virtualization Checklist



1. Assess your Server Environment – Use tools to help identify what servers would make good candidates

2. Pick you finalist for virtualization software

3. Select your virtualization platform

4. Select your server platform

5. Determine the storage hardware platform.

6. Review your backup platform – New backup technology can work with the VM Platform.

Understand your Operating System Licensing



If you are running numerous Windows servers, consider Windows 2008 Datacenter edition. Datacenter edition allows you to run an unlimited numbers of Windows servers.

Create a Project Plan

You will want to assign a project manager and build a project plan. This will help keep the project on track and hitting the deadlines you have established.

Implement and Educate

You will want to implement your VM software and provide your team training. This training can before the start of the project or at the very end.

To achieve the greatest savings, you will want to eliminate as many physical severs as possible. You will also want to use the built in tools to convert some of your existing machines.