When Virtualization Does/n’t Make Sense for the Data Center

There is much heated debate about the virtues of virtualization.

The blog post “Data Center Feng Shui” by Lori MacVittie provides a balanced, middle-of-road approach which cautions against unilateral adoption or rejection of virtualization. In the author’s words:

“There are certainly data center components across all four data center infrastructure tiers – security, network, storage, and application delivery – that can be (and perhaps should be) virtualized. There are also data center components in those tiers that should not be virtualized. Then there are the components that could go either way, depending on the specific organizational and operational goals, needs, and budget. \

In fact, there are times when the same component may in fact be deployed in both form factors simultaneously.”

This approach may be the wisest when it comes to virtualization, although it requires a bit more foresight and planning at the outset. The idea of having a virtualization strategy which examines what makes sense for each component isn’t rocket science. However, with all the hype surrounding the cloud, there’s a value to clearly advocating for the approach of weighing the pros and cons of virtualization on a case-by-case basis.

Have you:
a. Virtualized wherever possible?
b. Shunned virtualization wholesale?
c. Dipped your toes in the water just to check it out?