Virtualization: A Manager's Guide

Chapter 10. Summary

Virtualization Is a Double-Edged Sword

As with many types of technology, virtualization is a very powerful tool. If it is used properly, organizations gain quite a number of benefits:

• Applications can perform faster than today’s processor technology would normally support or make it possible to use many lower-cost, lower-performance machines to handle work that would normally be assigned to a larger, more expensive machine.

• Applications can scale to support more users than would be possible on a single system.

• Application environments can be much more reliable and dependable. System configurations can be constructed that will survive the loss of any single component.

• Client applications can be isolated from one another so that previously incompatible applications can share the same machine.

• Personal workloads and locked-down corporate workloads can share the same machine.

• Server use can be optimized.

Virtualization, however, is not a panacea. Using the wrong tool or using the right tool improperly can result in poor performance, higher costs for the organization, and the organization not being able to meet its objectives.

Virtualization is best used when the organization has an overarching plan and is developing solutions to fit an architecture rather than focusing on the “hot” tool of the moment.

Where to Go Next

Before embarking on the journey to a more virtualized environment, an organization should answer the following questions:

• What are the organization’s goals?

• What ...