Beyond the Hypervisor: Optimizing Virtualization Management

Beyond the Hypervisor: Optimizing
Virtualization Management®An ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES (EMAT) White Paper Prepared for ASG Software SolutionsAugust 2009
IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTINGIT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Table of ContentsInefficiencies of Virtualization Management..................................................................................................1
Mature Approach to Virtual Systems Management.......................................................................................3
Best Practices in VSM: Capacity, Performance, and Configuration Management ..................................3
Capacity Management....................................................................................................................................3
Performance Management............................................................................................................................4
Configuration Management..........................................................................................................................5
Integrated Management.................................................................................................................................5
ASG Approach to Critical VSM Disciplines....................................................................................................6
EMA Perspective...................................................................................................................................................8
About ASG.............................................................................................................................................................8
Beyond the Hypervisor: Optimizing Virtualization Management©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Inefficiencies of Virtualization ManagementEnterprise Management Associates (EMA) research shows that virtualization has rapidly become ubiquitous and pervasive. Around 90% of enterprises have already implemented virtualization (79% in production), and 60% for more than 12 months.This explosion has permeated throughout IT, driven by the sheer diversity of most virtualization deployments. A massive majority (98%) are using multiple virtualization platforms, technologies, and vendors - on average 3 to 4 of each, and as many as 20 in total. As a result, in 67% of enterprises, multiple teams (four different teams on average) are responsible for managing virtual systems.
Server Administration 71%OS Administration 37%Network Operations 37%Data Center Operations 34%Storage Management 32%Virtualization Support 21%Application Development 17%Other 3%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
% of Enterprises Where Each Department is Responsible for Managing Virtual Systems
Figure 1: The Multiple Task-Oriented Teams Involved in Managing Virtual SystemsOver time, this pervasive impact will increase, as virtualization project teams are disbanded and management is returned to the usual IT management teams. Only 14% of enterprises intend to maintain a separate virtualization management team for more than 24 months. Moreover, with an average of only 25-30% of most enterprise infrastructures currently virtualized, physical infrastructures will remain dominant through at least 2010. Physical and virtual systems will therefore need to work together, and be managed together, to deliver end-to-end business services.
No single team can be experts on all aspects of heterogeneous virtual systems.
No single team can be experts on all aspects of these heterogeneous virtual systems. Many special-ists will be required to support this complexity.
 See EMA Research Report, Virtualization and Management: Trends, Forecasts, and Recommendations, http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/research/asset.php?id=721 See EMA Research Report, Best Practices in Virtual Systems Management (VSM): Virtualization Metrics and Recommendations for Enterprises, http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/research/asset.php?id=1104
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