Virtualization: Are you willing to pay the price?

Time for some plain and simple facts. And this discussion I had with a leading education supplier in the Netherlands this morning. Yes this morning!

We were talking about the pricing against the price you're willing to pay. So is ESX really that expensive? Ask yourself these questions and decide yourself:

• Am I willing to pay the price for a virtualization solution that just about might help me save money in the future?
• Am I willing to invest in another virtualization vendor and its solutions while ignoring the "screaming message across the wall?"*
• What about manageability? Are we getting the real win out of the virtualization solution?
• Benchmarks: Is the cheaper solution the best or should I wait and see and risk my services go from bad (current physical) to worse (unmeasurable choices made due to pressure on costs)

Having said this, I don't want to target any virtualization vendor or solution. All I say is :

• Do the math
• Benchmark
• Ask around
• Do the math (again)

So this article obviously takes a jab at VMware's pricing and sure some folks might welcome it too. But are we forgetting something here? Its the technology and not a particular vendor. With loads of virtualization solutions springing like mushrooms all over this marshland, what do you do?

In 2006, many enterprise IT groups saw the potential in virtualization, rushed to consolidate servers and subsequently propelled VMware software to a market-leading spot. As 2007 begins, VMware’s prices are under attack, just as more CIOs look to virtualization to control server and storage sprawl and tame data center power costs.

What do you do?

Analysts advise CIOs planning for virtualization in 2007 to think strategically, not just tactically.

Ditto!

Read further...

*PS: And I didn't mention it in the same tone as the famed (or infamous) quote "Writing on the wall"