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Five Critical Criteria for Server Virtualization (continued)

The Right Steps to Real Results
How can you maximize your chances of getting the results you want?  Before implementing the technology, there are critical factors to take into account. The top five actions include:

• Analyze which applications are best served by virtualization. Not all applications work well in a virtualized environment. "One of the main challenges is figuring out the types of applications that are most applicable for benefiting from this environment," says Matt Brudzyn, a senior research consultant with the Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ontario. "Transaction-intensive applications like databases that strain the network and storage components of a virtualized resource tend not to be the most effective use of the technology." There are the licensing issues to consider, too. Many software vendors still sell licenses based on the amount of hardware used, and "those license fees can rapidly add up in a virtualized environment," he says. 
• Decide what problem you want to tackle first, and advance incrementally. As with any potentially large IT project, you "probably don't want to flip the switch on your entire data center overnight," says Gordon Haff, principal IT advisor with industry analyst firm Illuminata Inc. in Nashua, N.H. It's better to start with a pilot project and proceed gradually, he says. "Go for the low-hanging fruit. Luckily, virtualization lends itself nicely to starting on a relatively small scale." (article continues)

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