VMTN Blog

Link: vmMBA.com: Refresh Now!.

Why would you replace a server that runs fine, meets SLAs, and is not fully depreciated?

This is a common obstacle to replacing a physical server with a VM when it is not yet "ready" to be refreshed. Historically, people have had a hard time producing a business case for these servers. Here, I present a framework that can help justify a "refresh now" plan, and it is based upon a few key requirements:

• Energy costs are real.  ...
  
• Shared Storage costs are decreasing.  ...
  
  
• Multi-core processors have an impact in two areas: ...
  

When you take into account some of the above factors, it's often quite easy to produce a strong business case for virtualizing servers that are not yet due for a refresh.

The following spreadsheet shows a per-VM analysis that determines the breakeven point, in months, for virtualizing a server that still has useful life remaining.