As a result of economic turbulence, companies of all sizes continue to explore virtualization as an option for shedding costs. With the growing number of virtualization options available, it’s important not to let your organization fall victim to virtualization buzzwords. Not all vendors offer the benefits of virtualization, yet many claim they do.
With that being said, when deciding which solution to implement within your organization, IT decision makers should be prepared with an arsenal of questions to ask each provider – doing so will eliminate the typical “fluff” vendors use to sell their supposed virtualization solutions. Having all your questions answered will ensure that you get the most appropriate and highest quality solution for the applications you wish to protect. The following is a list of questions that might assist IT professionals in making their virtualization-related decisions, and some other considerations we offer:
- Should I start to deploy on a small scale or implement everything at once? Answers will vary depending on the size and flexibility or your organization. It’s important that the vendor understand the nature of your business and the value of your critical data before making a suggestion. Whether you are a small, nimble organization with the ability to deploy on all critical apps, or a large enterprise with procedural requirements that prevent you from total deployment, the implementation strategy should be tailored to your needs. There is not a “one size fits all” virtualization strategy.
- How much should I consolidate? We usually suggest phased deployment – start from scratch with the applications and environments that aren’t so mission critical, and then continue deploying as you see appropriate. It’s important to make sure that the vendor you have chosen can support your initiative.
- If I do decide to consolidate, does the server virtualization option I have chosen also meet my application availability needs? Since the implications of downtime in virtual environments have become greater, understanding solutions used to protect business critical applications is crucial. Some important things to consider are:
- Is the solution a “one-size-fits-all” approach, or does it offer flexible protection?
- Does it support different levels of availability for your applications?
- What will my cost savings be?
- How am I going to manage the virtualization solution? The manageability of virtual machines is a different dynamic, especially if this is your first time dealing with virtual machines. The IT processes and management needs are very different. A plan for management must be in place in order to have a successful solution – otherwise you’ll find a lot of redundancy and the need for unnecessary maintenance.
- What do I need for security? As higher applications are moved to the virtualization environment, security disciplines need to move as well.
These are just a few examples that should help get the conversation going. Has anyone deployed a virtual environment that wasn’t the right fit? What were the repercussions and what needed to be done to correct it?
If anyone has any questions they wish they had asked prior to purchasing, please leave them in the comments below and we will be sure to add them to the list.