VMware Virtual Infrastructure is a complex product, needing to be correctly planned and installed for effective use. Our consultancy services can help you make the most of your investment in this industry-leading product.

With the rapid progression of server technology, the days of one server per application are in the past. The way towards reduced TCO and enhanced manageability is by server consolidation. This is fine with applications that can co-exist. What about the servers that require older OS versions, specific DLL versions, incompatible clients? Normally you would have to provide a separate physical server for each of these, increasing your server count, along with support and maintenance overheads.

With enterprise-class VMware ESX, part of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure suite, you have the ability to consolidate production servers onto a reduced hardware platform while still maintaining isolation and integrity. Many different OS platforms can run concurrently, supporting new and legacy applications. Combined with SAN-based storage, a farm of  VMware's "Virtual Infrastructure 3" ESX servers can likely support your entire server offering on a reduced hardware platform with increased flexibility and reliability.

You can retain legacy applications and OS platforms (NT4 for example) that may not have driver support for newer hardware. How many people run Pentium 4 Xeon servers with NT4 for legacy apps? NT4 doesn’t support Hyperthreading extensions, USB legacy-free hardware, etc, so the only true advantages of the new hardware are faster processor and reduced chance of hardware failure from age. Depending on workload, a server may be running with  5% utilisation. This is a waste of expensive hardware. A more efficient way to use this would be to put multiple servers on it, getting a better return for the hardware investment.

Our lead consultant is VCP qualified (click here to find out what this means) with over 9 years in-depth experience