Server Virtualization Assessment
You may think that server virtualization only works for large enterprise companies. But it’s also a technology that may be useful to companies with 50 to 200 end users that have one to 10 servers running on their networks.
If you have a server that is heavily loaded, slow and runs a mission-critical application, virtualizing this type of server will just make a bad situation worse.
However, you probably have one or more servers carrying a relatively light load that could benefit from virtualization. That could provide better security, improved restores and fault tolerance, and a reduction in server maintenance and costs.
To determine whether server virtualization would work in your environment, there are eight critical areas that you should evaluate:
- Current average server CPU utilization rate
- The number of different server architecture/OS combinations that exist on your network
- The annual server growth rate you expect over the next three years
- The predictability of your server growth rate
- Where your physical servers are located (in remote or branch locations)
- The percentage of your servers that cannot be included in the consolidation effort due to departmental requirements or other nontechnical reasons
- The amount of time your organization spends testing a server before moving it into production
- The target level of network availability in terms of the amount of uptime required to run your business
