Virtualization is an amazing advancement for the technology industry, and let’s face it – architecturally, it is a beautiful thing. Virtualization will take IT efficiency to a whole new level, while also reducing complexity.

The benefits of a virtualized environment include:

• Reduce costs by increasing energy efficiency due to less hardware with server consolidation
• By implementing a server consolidation strategy, you can increase the space utilization efficiency in your data center
• You can build up business continuity through improved disaster recovery solutions and deliver high availability throughout the datacenter
• By having each application within its own “virtual server” you can prevent one application from impacting another application when upgrades or changes are made
• You can develop a standard virtual server build that can be easily duplicated, speeding up server deployment
• You can deploy multiple operating system technologies on a single hardware platform
• By virtualizing enterprise applications, such as Oracle, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint and SAP, you can meet the highest SLAs
• And more…

However, there is a catch many are missing – monitoring.

All companies experience peaks and troughs with resources, and IT is no exception. Within a virtualized environment, all machines are fighting for the same pool of resources. As such, with everyone fighting for resources at the same time, the IT team needs to ensure it is delivering the right services, at the optimal level of performance, to all of its customers across an organisation 24×7.

The algorithm to effectively run a virtualized environment is extremely complex, and so it cannot be perfect all the time, because it runs based on a scheduling mechanism. The problem is, resources are not so predictable, and resource needs are even less predictable in a virtualised environment. Therefore, if you are not monitoring your IT resources effectively, the end-user can never be sure if what they want is available, and that could create significant frustration.

There is no question that the virtualization of IT is a terrific advancement, BUT if you are not effectively monitoring it, you may face the IT peaks unaware of the potential for service disruption. Therefore, when defining your virtualisation strategy, IT decision makers must consider an effective infrastructure monitoring service to ensure no disruptions. This will ensure you reap the full benefits virtualization.

In essence, the virtualization of IT means resources are going to be shared, which means guaranteed predictability is not. Effective understanding of your resource utilization is vital to success, and as such, infrastructure monitoring has never been more important.

As our customers across Asia Pacific are moving towards a virtualized environment, we are working with them to ensure their monitoring strategy is in line with their virtualization strategy. We know our customers will experience rapid success in moving to a virtualized environment, because the most important aspect for success is being factored in to the strategic planning – monitoring.

Let us know if you have an effective monitoring strategy in line with your virtualization strategy?

Cheers

The NetGain Team