Dave Sobel, CEO, Evolve Technologies talks about the advantages of implementing a virtual environment.

Why would a company choose Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology over similar virtual environments?
Every company needs to do a cost analysis of its virtualisation environments to ensure that needs are matched to the technology. Microsoft offers a virtualisation platform integrated into the operating system, and thus managed through a management console that is already familiar to Windows’ administrators. Microsoft has built a stack of management tools that fully integrate with both the physical and virtual environments. From one set of management consoles, an organisation can control its physical and virtual assets, which clearly differentiates the Microsoft stack from other solution platforms.

What one piece of advice could you offer a small-to-medium-size business that was thinking of implementing virtualisation?
When looking at implementing virtualisation, ensure that you have a clear strategy for managing your virtual assets. The new virtualised environments will need to be managed and maintained like physical ones, yet without the luxury of a visual inspection. SMBs must ensure that they can administer virtual environments with the tools and techniques already in place, or appropriately modify equipment and procedures to support the new environments.

What is the biggest hurdle companies face when implementing the virtual environment?
The biggest hurdle companies face is fear. The fear of the unknown is always an issue for organisations, as there is an inherent risk in rolling out a new technology. Virtualisation is a time-tested technology, backed by a 30-year legacy of computing. Businesses should understand the implications of virtualisation implementation, and work with a qualified team (internal or external) to ensure proper rollout.

Is virtualisation for all companies? Is any company too small?
I believe that virtualisation should be considered in every installation. Virtualisation is a core infrastructure technology and can enable a business of any size to operate a much more dynamic and flexible IT infrastructure than a non-virtualised one. However, this comes at a trade off for complexity, and an organisation needs to understand that this complexity comes with a risk and must determine if the business value is higher than the costs. If this equation works in favour of greater business benefit, then there is no company too small.

What are your plans for Evolve’s expansion and growth?
Evolve is targeting continued expansion for our service customers in the areas of network management and IT support, collaboration, disaster recovery management and virtualisation. Additionally, we plan to extend our virtualisation offerings to help other solution providers deliver virtualisation solutions.

What would your advice be for companies that believe the cost of virtualisation is prohibitive?
For me, that question requires additional follow-up with that particular company, because I think, it is important to understand how the business conducted its cost analysis. What were the factors looked at, and how was the result obtained. Not every solution, in every case, calls for virtualisation. Therefore, if there were a business case to be made against virtualisation, which accounts for all factors, then I would agree with the analysis.

However, I find that most companies have simply looked at the implementation costs. Virtualisation breaks the connection of hardware and software, thus significantly reducing later upgrade costs and creating cost effective business continuity and disaster recovery options, maximised IT investment through maximising hardware investments, and reduced power consumption costs via server sprawl reduction. These costs are often overlooked and need to be factored into virtualisation costs.

Do you see a future for virtualisation in the home? For individuals?
Absolutely. Virtualisation is a core infrastructure technology, and we already see its use at the individual level. Personal Macintosh users who utilise Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run Windows on their Apple hardware are already using virtualisation. As the technology continues to find uses, applications will integrate more and more into personal computing. Ideally, the technology will be seamless and hidden from the user, simply allowing resources to be as dynamic and flexible as the user needs.