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Blame it on the ailing economy: While interest in server virtualization remains strong, deployment plans appear to be waning. So, at least, suggests a recent survey of IT executives conducted for Accelerate by IDG Research Services. According to the October 2008 study, 67 percent of IT executives say server virtualization will be important to their company in the next 12 months. Yet only 45 percent plan to invest in virtual servers over the next year. That’s down from 65 percent in a similar survey just six months earlier.
Why the steep drop? Perhaps because with credit scarce and market conditions deteriorating, many companies have slashed their IT budgets recently. “People are looking at spending across the board,” notes Mark Bowker, an analyst at research and advisory firm Enterprise Strategy Group of Milford, Mass.
Still, businesses needn’t let virtualization’s price tag hinder their investment plans. Here are four ways to virtualize servers more affordably:
1. Analyze before you virtualize: Don’t scrimp on pre-rollout planning. Something as simple as carefully determining the optimal distribution of workloads across physical host machines may reduce the amount of hardware you need to buy. Thoroughly evaluating your host server options can reduce up-front costs too. “You don’t necessarily need the biggest, most powerful machines,” Bowker observes. A somewhat larger number of smaller, less brawny machines will sometimes work just as well and cost less.
2. Virtualize servers and storage together: Adding storage virtualization on top of server virtualization may not sound like the
most intuitive way to save money. But the majority of companies ultimately wind up deploying both technologies, and rolling them out separately can lead to overspending on unnecessary or ill-matched technologies. “We’ve seen people who don’t plan appropriately spend 20 times what they need to on storage,” says Mike Strohl, president of Entisys Solutions Inc., a Concord, Calif.-based integrator with extensive virtualization experience.
3. Start small: If virtualizing everything at once is too pricey, try starting out with just your file and print servers, or another subset of your infrastructure. In fact, taking such a “go slow” approach can help you minimize the sometimes costly impact of your inevitable rookie mistakes. “People deploying virtualization for the first time have to look at it as a crawl, walk, run scenario,” Bowker says.
4. Combine virtualization with other projects: Virtualization is only expensive when done in isolation, Strohl notes. Merging it with other projects, however, can actually help you save money. For example, if you’re going to be retiring outdated servers anyway, virtualizing their replacements can lower your hardware bills. Similarly, implementing virtualization in connection with a previously budgeted business continuity initiative can help you improve disaster recovery readiness while laying in a foundation for future infrastructure enhancements.
“Look for low-hanging fruit,” Strohl says. It can help you take the financial sting out of implementing this valuable new technology.
Rich Freeman is Accelerate’s executive editor.
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