Virtualization: Have you thought of the harmonized eco-system?

This little post does a quick check on the interoperability for a heterogeneous Virtualized shop. There are a lot of things you ought to check out. Just look at your window and imagine how your Virtualized infrastructure is going to look like.

Will it be only VMware? Will it be VMware in production and Xen in test (owing to pricing issue)? Will it be Microsoft+VMware in production and Xen in test? As a CIO you might be at the crossroads and be ready to make choices. It is hard yes, I know.

Obviously you can also look at how other solutions and markets have performed. Imagine, a lot of firms just didn't bite the Terminal Servers and Blades solution. But Citrix remains the king of Terminal Services Solutions. VMware (today) specializes in Virtualization technology. Will vendors like Microsoft, Xen etc take it just about that seriously. Or will they attempt to indulge in FUD, scaring the clients/customers and tell them to "wait for the next wave", "Umm..I wouldn't go there, if I were you"etc

OK so my point is simple. go for the vendor that is the market leader. Like VMware. Heck, you wouldn't go for OpenOffice (even though you know that its a cool product), you still choose for Microsoft Office. So choose wisely and don't get distracted too much.

Do you know how there are some questions that at first glance seem like they may generate long and complicated answers? Recently I was pinged with such a question, but then I came to realize that the my original answer, and in fact the question itself were both over thinking the situation. The question is, “What problems are there with running various virtualization solutions in the same data center?”

The answer is simple — there really are not any problems that do not already exist in any given data center that employs heterogeneous technologies. For example, there are the problems of redundancy, vendor support, free storage space, and staff expertise.

Read it here...