Removing Barriers To Better Server Virtualization Efficiency

December 23, 2008
Removing Barriers To Better Server
Virtualization Efficiency A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Tripwire Removing Barriers To Better Server Virtualization Efficiency
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 3
Virtualization Experience Grows - And So Does Criticality ................................................................ 4
Virtualization Presents New Challenges ................................................................................................ 6
Management Is The Key To Eliminating Barriers ................................................................................. 8
Time Spent Troubleshooting Virtual Servers Hasn't Risen - Yet ................................................... 9
Increasing The Efficiency Of Your Virtual Environment ...................................................................... 11
Build A Virtualization-Aware Management Infrastructure ............................................................... 12
Optimize Your Organization And Process ...................................................................................... 13
Appendix A: Methodology .................................................................................................................... 16
Appendix B: Endnotes .......................................................................................................................... 17
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Executive Summary Server virtualization technology has drastically improved hardware utilization, disaster recovery capabilities, and time-to-market. As virtualization matured and IT organizations become more familiar with the technology, it has seen greater use for more mission-critical applications. But management challenges can ultimately limit the amount of cost you can drive out of your environment. Forrester believes that more virtualization-aware management tools and processes are necessary before we can fully virtualize our production servers and reach the lowest-possible cost per VM. You can overcome barriers to virtual server scalability and wider production deployment by adopting better tools and processes that aggregate information from virtual systems, provide real-time control, and reduce overhead by consolidating management tasks.
In October 2008, Tripwire commissioned Forrester Consulting to research these challenges to the further deployment of server virtualization. Forrester endeavored to determine the top priorities and challenges of today's virtualization professionals through fielding and analysis of a survey of 164 virtualization professionals. This study included inquiry into the current role of virtualization in the overall environment and barriers to further deployment, as well as how performance is measured for both the environment and those managing virtualized servers.
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Virtualization Experience Grows - And So Does
Criticality Server virtualization technology has been rapidly adopted over the past 10 years. As the technology has matured, so has enterprise experience - but not every company uses virtualization to the same degree, with many firms experimenting on a small scale. To better understand the issue associated with running significant virtualized environments, Forrester surveyed large companies that are running virtualization on at least 10 physical hosts. According to the survey, more than half of the respondents had greater than five years of experience, running about 21 to 3... [download for more]