Getting Real in a Virtual World

When it comes to IT, the mandate from our Managing Partner, Chuck Rennert, has always been: “Get something good that works.” I'm an aggressive cost-containment oriented person. However, as those in IT would surely agree, it's good to have a decision-maker that is practical and forward thinking when it comes to technology investments. To “nickel and dime” in the short-term is a recipe for disaster when attempting to create an infrastructure that will answer immediate and future IT demands. With this in mind, when we began looking at virtualization ' heralded as a tech area that can shape the fortunes of an organization ' I realized the initiative would need to be approached cautiously to achieve our goals and ensure strong ROI.

My first exposure to virtualization was years ago when I began using Virtual Iron software for server virtualization. This gave me a glimpse at the vast potential benefits offered by a virtualized infrastructure. Soon after, I attended a VMware class that brought me into contact with DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization software. I was convinced from that experience that storage virtualization was the best way to go for the same reasons as server virtualization: flexibility, hardware independence and centralized management. It turns out many companies had charged into virtualization without giving much thought to storage, and as a result, many of these initiatives came to a sudden, costly halt.