Virtualization : Why should a company pick VMWare?

OK fellas , No bullshit, plain facts. You're a Technical Consultant and are looking for some solid reasons to REALLY REALLY tell the client why he'd need Virtualization and why specifically VMWare ESX Servers

o Server Consolidation (If you have 100 existing Servers, and lot's of them are underutilized, You'd be shocked that you might bring that number down drastically!)

o It will save you huge amounts of money just in Cooling the Server Environment. Less Servers == Less load on the Air conditioners. And don't forget the Electricity bill too.

o Save money on Multiple Server Contracts, bring them down to just a handful of servers. ( I know, I know, I should use fancy terms like TCO and ROI, but we're talking to a client who's very impatient).

o Drastically reduce the Administration costs: Less physical servers, less running around, more time to talk to your Sys Admins!

o Package the whole Server! : Well you want to restore the crashed scenario, forget about doing it in a few minutes and sure the more third party stuff, the more the delay. In VMWare you can just *package* the whole server, no need to go through the mumbo jumbo of reinstalling OS's (Which ever that is, imagine if you had a fancy Linux in Windows or fancy Windows in Linux environments then you'd have a lot of sweating and headless-chicken effect). Just package it!

o Experimenting will lead to excellence : Don't expect your IT staff to tell you cool stuff. Tell them to get engaged in cool stuff. You can learn a great deal of putting all your ideas to practice, Since you have all kinds of VMWare Scenario's in our Shop packaged, you'd be willing to try lot's of things. Think growth within your organization. Basically you're selling the power of testing/developing lot's of fun things and the ability to always be able to restore the situation in a specific PIT (Point in time).

o It's all Virtual : You want a SCSI drive, A NIC card, just add them. Want to add a node to an existing Oracle RAC (be it 9i or 10g), want to cluster MSSQL Servers, want to cluster WINS, PrintServers. It's virtual you see. You don't need to buy another Server or Servers. Think Scalability!

o Legacy Applications are a pain : they are beasts and some even run on older OS's, you're pressed on Consolidation but OS's have their share of meat and you'd rather have them neatly running in the latest-greatest-supplier-approved *HOST* OS.

o Run Multiple OS's on the same Physical Server : Heck, you might just come down to one 64 CPU's, Dual Core, 64G RAM massive Server and have all your company's life line running in one box. You see the client breaking in cold sweat!

Client :"But? but?..."
VM Guy : "Yea, Yea, I know, We'll just have another box with same spec's geographically seperated with a Fully Sync'ed SAN on either ends, So even if Bin Laden want's to Bomb your shop, we'll just quietly failover to the Secret location"
Client : " Can I call you God?"
VM Guy : "OK"

o Migration/Moving is Damn easy!: No hassles, use Vmotion to migrate.

o Use P2V Assistant to Investigate : During your evaluation/test/pilot stage, use P2V Assistant to move all the chosen OS's from your production to VMware (Physical2Virtual) platform.

o Manage with Virtual Center : Easy management, again no need in investing in all those 3rd party products which will install their agents on all your servers. Putting it simply, it's time you really did some *smart* cost cuttings. Don't fire your staff, fire those damn Servers!. Check out this demo, it's a 40Mb AVI file and you can play it on your pc.

o Contain the influx of incoming Servers : Not only do you consolidate but you also contain that influx! Thereby saving money in additional Server contracts, Cooling, Electricity, Administration...list goes on and on.

o Use VMWare ACE to deploy ready baked *packages* : Well aren't you tired of making a Computer ready because someone needs to work on Word or OpenOffice for just one freaking day?. Well here you deploy a ready baked OS+Apps+AccessGrants for temporary engagements. Well it won't be a crazy idea to deploy it to your whole organization, that'll save you all the headache's of hacking,rogue modems and other violations. Anyways bottom line = Make your life easier.

o Invest in your Future : This is no hype, it's the future. Actually it's been here for quite a while.

Cheers