Virtualization

With its potential for improving efficiency and reducing TCO, virtualization has emerged over the last few years as one of the key areas of change in the enterprise IT environment. However, as virtualization technology has been adopted by more organizations, new challenges have arisen, including extra software costs, increased IT complexity, and the corresponding need for staff training. These issues are mostly from the use of disparate third-party virtualization products and a lack of integration between the physical and virtual infrastructures.

As solutions have been developed over the years to address organizations' numerous cost, manageability, and usability requirements, a variety of approaches has taken shape that now falls under the umbrella of virtualization. This includes server/hardware virtualization that seeks to increase server density as well as a variety of client-facing virtualization solutions that decouple the different computing layers of the desktop and storing some or all of them in a data center.

Difficulty in formulating or executing a virtualization strategy often results from a lack of understanding around the different forms of virtualization and how each can effectively be leveraged, or from a misguided belief that any one approach can address all goals.

A mature virtualization strategy includes a mix of the following:

Microsoft delivers technologies designed specifically to address each of these virtualization categories -- most of which many Microsoft customers already own. Microsoft also provides comprehensive management capabilities through the System Center family of products. By leveraging the Microsoft platform and Hitachi Consulting's consulting experience, organizations can streamline their virtualization strategy to reduce costs, improve efficiency and reliability, and increase agility in today's dynamic business climate.

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