VMTN Blog

Five more ways to screw up virtualization from Computerworld's Robert Mitchell:

Too much, too quickly. Once virtualization takes hold, it can grow rapidly in many directions and become difficult to manage -- a phenomenon that Matt Dattilo, vice president and CIO at PerkinElmer Inc. in Waltham, Mass., calls "VM creep." ...

Stumbling on security. In the rush to virtualize servers, it's easy to mix servers with different security requirements. "Do you want to consolidate a server in the DMZ with one behind it?" ...

Failure to sell the benefits. While virtualization may sound like a good idea to IT organizations, the idea doesn't always sit well with users. The problem is, many organizations don't know how to sell the benefits to constituents. ...

Falling into the departmental divide. Many departments have evolved to support their own applications over time. The economies of centralized virtualization and server consolidation tend to cut horizontally across departmental applications fiefdoms. ...

The licensing trap. While virtualization can substantially reduce the numbers of servers through consolidation, if you don't plan right, it can actually increase software licensing costs, users warn. ...

If that sounds like it might be you, may I introduce you to some very nice VMware Certified Professionals? They can help.

[Update: See also 44% unable to declare virtualization deployments a success  via virtualization.info, VMblog.com, vi411.org. It's not rocket science, but your organizational readiness is key.]