Practical IT Research that Drives Measurable Results 1Info-Tech Research Group Get Moving with Server Virtualization

Executive Summary Success in server virtualization is achieved by meeting one time and ongoing cost savings while building a more efficient and resilient server infrastructure. Server virtualization is a journey that starts with server consolidation where acquisitions savings is the main force promoting the business case. Demonstrated facilities savings and cost avoidance are also key drivers. Small to mid-sized enterprises rapidly progress from exploiting initial consolidation savings to additional benefits of managing virtual infrastructure (such as high availability and more agile disaster recovery planning). The virtual infrastructure journey ends in a managed utility infrastructure where applications are dynamically provisioned with abstracted resources. Act now for immediate tactical benefit (consolidation, capital cost savings) and plan for longer term strategic benefit of managing a virtual server infrastructure.

The journey starts with server consolidation and ends in a managed utility infrastructure (internal cloud). Consolidate to reduce capital expenses, lower operational costs through reduced server footprint and energy savings. Manage virtual servers and storage to optimize application performance, rapidly provision new workloads, and improve availability/recovery. Build utility infrastructure to fully automate delivery of infrastructure as a service, from scalable agile abstracted (cloud) infrastructure.

Info-Tech Research Group4 Midsize enterprises will more likely consider virtual server management benefits and initial consolidation savings together. Management benefits include rapid provisioning of server applications, more agile dev/test environment, higher availability (reduced downtime), resource optimization (through VM live migration), and lower costs for disaster recovery. Larger enterprises might focus mainly on the consolidation capital savings first and tackle management areas in a second project phase. Success in server virtualization balances immediate cost savings with exploitation of longer term benefits of a virtual infrastructure. For mid-sized enterprises, it is as much about management benefits as it is about consolidation savings. % of Servers Virtualized Info-Tech Insight Smaller enterprises will look at virtualizing business critical application workloads, such as an e- mail server, even though the capacity requirements will mean a very low consolidation ratio. Info-Tech has found that among enterprises that are virtualizing servers, small to mid-size enterprises will virtualize a greater proportion of their server infrastructure in the first year.

Build on consolidation savings that can reach up to 75%. Reduction in hardware-related maintenance costs of 25% to 50% monthly recurring savings Reduction in one-time and ongoing hardware acquisition costs of 40% and 75% Better DR/BC enabled Efficiency benefits from increased manageability Info-Tech Recommends: Your overall strategy goals should pursue all benefits; but a business case should focus on the hard numbers of the consolidation savings. All the benefits are important, but these top two areas are more easily quantified and will have greater impact in your business case. Server Virtualization Benefits A professional services organization consolidated seven virtual servers per physical host machine, realizing hardware savings of over 60%. Case Example:

Info-Tech Research Group6 Savings increase with consolidation ratio Cost of New Server $3-6K 0 $3000 -$6000 $6000 -$12000 $9000 -$18000 Acquiring New Servers Virtualizing Cost of New Server $3-6K Cost of New Server $3-6K Cost of Virtual Host Hardware $6-12K Cost of Virtual Software $3-6K The consolidation break even point for virtual servers is a 3:1 consolidation ratio. A good starting point is 15 or more servers to be virtualized. Considering all costs – hardware, software, training, and implementation – 15 servers was where consolidation savings start to take off. Info-Tech Insight: Consolidation ratios will differ depending on virtual server workloads and underlying hardware. An average consolidation ratio of 7:1 is typical among implementers.

Take advantage of server refresh to pilot virtual servers – from now on virtualize unless otherwise for new servers. 7Info-Tech Research Group 1 Move ahead with the initial implementation Don’t let planning delay consolidation. Implementation will provide a use case and pilot to inform the planning process. Document how the initial implementation performs against one time and ongoing cost savings goals. Success of the initial virtualization implementation will encourage future virtual migrations. 2 Pursue a policy of "virtualize unless otherwise" Make it a policy imperative that that virtualization will be the first option for all new application implementations or for migration of existing apps off of end-of-life hardware. Rather than trying to justify virtual machines for each case, virtualization will be the norm unless it can be proven that a given application is not a good candidate for technical or other reasons. Identify dependencies, opportunities, stakeholders. Identify the people and processes that would be impacted by virtualization. Beyond server consolidation, virtual infrastructure will have an impact on network management, security management, storage management, and business continuity/disaster recovery management as well as application management. Document your strategic goals Set some consolidation ratios, and then think beyond consolidation ratios. Consider business continuity, turnaround time on server requests, power and heating reduction, reduced capital expense and operating expense per server instance. Measure everything Assessing candidates for virtualization will involve capacity and utilization measurement of memory, processor, I/O, and storage utilization. All currently running servers, both development and production, should be assessed for virtualization

Conclusion Info-Tech Research Group8 In server virtualization, act now for immediate tactical benefit (consolidation, capital cost savings) and plan for the longer term strategic benefits of managing a virtual server infrastructure. “Virtualization Scope Analysis Worksheet”Virtualization Scope Analysis Worksheet “Virtualization Project Definition Template”Virtualization Project Definition Template “Saving Money Through Virtualization”Saving Money Through Virtualization “Virtualization Consolidation Cost” “Savings Calculator”Virtualization Consolidation Cost”Savings Calculator “Virtualization Decision Fit Tool”Virtualization Decision Fit Tool “Virtual Servers Planning Goals: Take a Baby Bear Approach”Virtual Servers Planning Goals: Take a Baby Bear Approach Further Resources:

Additional Tools and Insight Included in Complete Report Beware continuing cost areas such as licensing and storage. Streamline disaster recovery, provision server applications in minutes, boost server availability. Realize labor and maintenance efficiency through more agile and effective server management. Plan to build an agile, scalable, utility infrastructure (Internal Cloud). Summary Recommendations Info-Tech Research Group9

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