Entering the Server Virtualization Zone

Server virtualization is becoming more and more practical for smaller companies than ever.  As companies reach the 8-10 server realm and have gaps in their business continuity process, virtualization offers a variety of easy-to-access, high-return benefits.

A couple of clients DLP is currently engaging help tell the story.  Both of these companies have aging server hardware and recognize a need to make their next step in updating their data centers one that will deliver optimal returns over the long haul.  Both have approximately 65 PC users and 8 and 11 servers respectively.

The first of these is a family owned and managed company in the retail home products market.  They have tended to view information technology as an expense more so than as an investment which they're trying to optimize.  As a result they've held on to all of their technology assets too long, from servers to a flat-file database application that runs their entire business process (from customer order to post-sale customer service).


This first company's business drivers began with the determination by a relatively new CFO that his IT Manager, who is not a "pure" network infrastructure guy but is the only IT resource, needed some support assistance.  Additionally they recognized their need to update their aging server infrastructure.  What they began to fully appreciate by going through their solution evaluation process was their risk exposure, which is a result of both poor data backup/archive tools and procedures and a lack of adequate server/storage redundancy.

They were NOT seeking a virtualization solution - that came from my understanding of their needs and an introduction to what small business virtualization could deliver to their organization.  As of this post time and after several weeks of investigation and evaluation, they have calculated their ROI and decided to work with DLP to deliver a dual-host server, VMware vSphere SMB solution.  I'll keep you up to date on their results and level of satisfaction.

The second of these companies was much further down the road in both their IT maturity and their understanding of what they were looking for in a virtualization solution.  In fact they had gone so far as to take server virtualization as a "given" and extended their solution scope to include desktop virtualization.

With this approach, this second company, with a 2 person IT department, chose to explore how creating a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platform could further reduce their overall daily/weekly administrative tasks in order to focus their time and attention on higher value, business solution activities.  Tackling both server AND desktop virtualization is no easy project to be taken lightly and the combined up front investment would even make the most cash rich company take notice.  That said, there are compelling reasons to "fix all the problems" while you have the patient opened up.

So if you are now or soon graduating from a small to mid-market company with 8-15 servers and/or over 75 PC users, there are big time long term savings to be gained from virtualizing your network infrastructure, from servers to PC workstations.  Drop me an email and I'd be happy to direct you to resources that would provide you with some top line information about what virtualization is and does, how much it costs, and what is both the ROI and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) impact versus your current method for deploying your network system.