Vendor Landscape: Server Virtualization
Server virtualization continues to drive value in infrastructure consolidation and management while laying the foundation of private and public cloud computing.
- VMware continues to dominate the server virtualization landscape; however, challengers such as Microsoft, Citrix, and Red Hat are providing competitive features for consolidation and virtual infrastructure management.
- Server virtualization, for many organizations, is moving beyond basic consolidation into a more managed virtual environment and potentially to the internal Cloud, which is where differentiation among vendors really begins.
- The server virtualization market is competitive, and selecting the solution that will fit your unique environment should be the main driver.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Feature parity is only the beginning. As competitors pile on the me-too features and capabilities, checking off features and adding up licensing/support costs will not yield sufficient differentiation. Test alternatives in your use cases to get a clearer picture of how and at what cost they compare.
- Focus on management features. As the majority of server workloads are virtualized, the key benefits beyond consolidation are in a more resilient and agile infrastructure. In vendor evaluation, focus on enabling management features – from live migration to storage management integration.
- Evaluate the relative merits of a multi-hypervisor approach. While VMware remains the go-to solution for production servers, Info-Tech sees alternative hypervisors explored for lower cost compute tiers and special projects such as virtual desktop infrastructure.
Impact and Result
- Understand what’s new in the server virtualization market.
- Evaluate server virtualization vendors and products for your organization’s needs.
- Determine which products are most appropriate for particular use cases and scenarios.
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