Server virtualization can—and does—present numerous IT challenges
In spite of its widespread use and many associated benefits, server virtualization can—and does—present numerous IT challenges. Many organizations surveyed by ESG complain that budget constraints hold back progress while others say that server virtualization can’t help with unsupported legacy applications and systems. Server virtualization also creates problems with existing people, processes, and technologies; IT professionals don’t always have the right skill set or knowledge base for server virtualization projects. Many struggle with technology problems around capacity planning, performance, and system tuning. Respondents also report concerns over server virtualization’s impact on IT security. These issues cross functional IT lines as application, server, storage, networking, and security administrators share many of these concerns. The technology industry believes that server virtualization provides a foundation for IT automation, dynamic workload mobility, and, finally, a bridge to cloud computing. ESG agrees with this transformation in theory, but ESG research suggests that this process is in its infancy. For instance, few organizations are currently using VM mobility for purposes other than basic server maintenance. Workload balancing is done through manual intervention rather than automated software. As for process automation, organizations need the next generation of integrated, virtual-aware management tools and organizational alignment before this goal can be achieved. Server virtualization is ideal for IT consolidation. Beyond consolidation there can be a diminishing return on the investment depending on the targeted workloads. Businesses need to weigh the return on investment and determine if the incremental benefits of server virtualization are worth the migration or will they manage and the maintain the workload as is and ultimately look to change the consumption model altogether and consume the workload as a SaaS-delivered application.
