Vendor Landscape Plus: Server Virtualization

Enable server efficiency and cost savings from consolidation to internal cloud.

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Your Challenge

While VMware remains the market share leader in the server virtualization market, competitors have emerged with attractive alternatives, making it all the more important to evaluate all alternatives.
Server virtualization, for many organizations, is moving beyond basic consolidation into a more managed virtual environment, which is where differentiation among vendors really begins.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Focus on business requirements. The first step in selecting a server virtualization vendor is to determine the functionality that your organization requires to meet the business needs, or to justify an investment in server virtualization.
Consider future requirements. VMware leads innovation around building a utility infrastructure (or internal cloud). However, Citrix also has a clear vision for future development, and Microsoft is now moving beyond basic internal cloud functionality. If current or future needs involve internal cloud, VMware & Citrix are safe choices.
Go for good enough. Align current and future requirements with the capabilities and solution feature-sets of vendors. While VMware is the market leader, its higher cost makes it critical to assess whether an alternative vendor can meet your organization’s needs.

Impact and Result

Virtualization first-timers should start with free hypervisors to achieve basic server partitioning and consolidation, and to gain experience with virtualization.
Management tools come at a price but are needed to take virtualization efforts to a higher level (e.g. disaster recovery goals).
Vendors eventually want to lead enterprises up the path to the cloud; server virtualization is a key enabler of cloud initiatives.

Get to Action

Narrow down a list of server virtualization vendors
Develop a virtualized infrastructure that will meet current and future requirements.
- Vendor Landscape Plus Storyboard: Server Virtualization
- Select a Server Virtualization Solution with Confidence
Estimate potential cost savings for consolidation
Determine if server virtualization is a worthwhile investment.
- Virtualization Consolidation Cost Savings Calculator
Compare leading vendors and develop a shortlist
Narrow the leading vendors down to the most appropriate few.
- Server Virtualization Vendor Shortlist Tool
Contrast and evaluate a shortlist of vendors
Select the right server virtualization vendor.
Compare hardware and virtualization software scenarios
Balance maximum capacity with lowest TCO.
- Server Virtualization TCO Comparison Tool

Avoid Server Virtualization Implementation Pain

Virtualization is not a magic bullet. Poor scoping of infrastructure and business needs will lead to implementation pain.

Leverage Server Virtualization for DR Affordability and Agility

Virtualization is not just for consolidation - drive cost and complexity out of system availability and restore.

Build an Optimized Infrastructure-as-a-Service Internal Cloud

The best computing cloud is the one you've already started with server virtualization.

Use Cloud Computing to Achieve Small Enterprise Savings

Small businesses are in a unique position to gain advantage with cloud computing.

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