Key features to consider when evaluating Server Virtualization Software include:
Scalability
Security
Performance
Compatibility
Management Tools
Scalability is crucial because as a business grows, its virtualization solution should seamlessly handle increased workloads without degrading performance. Security features help protect data from unauthorized access. Compatibility ensures the software can integrate with existing systems and hardware. Performance is critical to ensure server efficiency and resource utilization.
Good management tools simplify the process of managing multiple virtual machines, allowing for easy monitoring and adjustments. Intuitive management tools enable administrators to minimize downtime and deliver optimal resource distribution. The choice of Server Virtualization Software will heavily impact IT infrastructure management, making it vital to focus on software that ensures efficient allocation and utilization of resources.
Search for a product comparison in Server Virtualization Software
Technical Specialist at Softcell Technologies Limited
User
2024-02-09T10:21:29Z
Feb 9, 2024
When assessing Server Virtualization Software, one of the most crucial aspects to consider is scalability. Scalability ensures that the software can efficiently handle increasing workloads and accommodate growth in your organization's needs over time. This includes the ability to easily add or remove virtual machines, allocate resources dynamically, and adapt to changing business requirements without significant downtime or disruptions. Scalability ensures that the virtualization solution can support your organization's growth and evolving demands effectively, providing a stable and flexible infrastructure for your IT environment.
Senior Manager of Network at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
2014-06-24T15:03:40Z
Jun 24, 2014
For me personally all of the above are relevant, (except comments like virtual environments are very easy to use, but yet very hard to manage, they're not, they're just different and require more than a Windows Skillset) however I traditionally start from where its going to end and so the question is, what is this going to leave behind? What is the legacy of implementing this? If implementing something causes a technology or vendor lock in, massive support costs, proprietary hardware, specific skills training etc, then it is to be given serious deliberation as to whether it is viable option for the business/organisation in the long term. So my most important criteria is legacy followed by Can we do a Proof of Concept for free therefore minimising investment to just engineering time.
I agree with all of the above I will add a -no nonsense approach-...a big dose of simplicity--many a software that has a great capability is immediately thrown out by users or Tech guys and cause a tremendous loss of business hours because of its highly Academic approach and fancy wordings. Here are some examples..Yahoo is successful because of its straight forward interface.
Google one line search approach is another example..Windows 8 was not successful because of its nonsense interface..VMWare workstation is the best example of a successful Interface...One will not need much support if the software is TIDY..in today s age time is of the essence...Tech people must be able to intuitively navigate and learn on the spot and so are the user .so INTERFACE is KEY followed by what the gentlemen described.
I run Oracle Linux with VirtualBox which has the Ksplice feature that allows me to update without reboots which means my virtual machines get fewer interruptions due to updates.
Product Manager, Identification Solutions at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
2017-05-09T15:50:12Z
May 9, 2017
Most Important: The ability of the software to support the business need at reasonable cost -- initial costs as well as ongoing support costs. In my case, I'm looking to create a virtual sandbox for Windows application testing as a VM within my existing machine that does not have adverse affects on my daily operations.
Oracle Linux & VM Server Lead Manager at BT Global Services
Real User
2016-07-04T07:24:54Z
Jul 4, 2016
Scalability, stability, ease of deployment and straightforward operational support. Finally, good technical support from the vendor.
Which also should be cost effective.
System Admin Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
2015-09-30T09:39:38Z
Sep 30, 2015
1. Scalability/Reliability associated with business requirements.
2. Network Security
3. Easy management and handling of disasters.
4. Low OPEX and high ROI
When you are researching by a virtualization solution, you must to have in mind what you hop from this technology and how much do you intend to grow (how their environment can grow in a not too distant future).
With this in mind, you can see that we have many possibilities, but some one of them can generate additional costs if you have to increase the environment in a short time period.
Based in this criterias, you need to consider ROI and Scalability as main characteristics to acquire a virtualization system.
In a first moment, a cheaper solution can seems the best, but as said before, if you have to increase the environment quickly, this solution that seemed cheaper could become the most expensive.
Network Engineer II at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
2015-08-13T18:40:20Z
Aug 13, 2015
For me, the most important factor is whether it meets the customer's needs or not. There are many use cases for all of the virtualization platforms and not one does everything perfectly. Price is always a factor in meeting the customer's needs, a lot of times the feature list comes after the price.
Beside current requirements fulfillment, Future Enhancements and Capability in case we have double or even more bigger infra. Backup, HA and Fault Tolerance.
* Interoperability with storage systems for reliable HA, vMotion, DRS operations.
* Easy-to-configure process & supportive help files(with diagrammatic representaions) for any new operations included. With this any feature could be executed without any hassle.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
2015-05-26T14:48:22Z
May 26, 2015
Virtualization most important criteria
- scalability (being ability to move and build more without outage)
- flexibility, and resiliency (hardware outage without application outage)
- stability (knowing that the system will be available)
- manageability (managing the system with solid tools, and not have to manage the system everyday)
Performance and efficiency. Every bit of degradation between bare metal and the VM client is a cause for concern. I am trying to balance virtualization benefits (scalability and administration) against bare metal performance benefits.
Director of Information Technology at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Vendor
2015-04-13T20:08:26Z
Apr 13, 2015
As both a VMWare and Microsoft HyperV instructor, I get to experience both products in a classroom environment as well as a live environment. I look for stability and scaleability first and foremost. By far, VMWare wins hands down in these areas except costs. Now with VMWare NSX (Virtualized routing and Switching) VMware has taken the lead in this area as well. Microsoft is well behind.
The most important criterias when looking for server virtualization software are: business support, certification, features like snapshot, cloning and backup and finally, openess. Clear and supported procedures on how to migrate between the major Virtualization platforms should be made available to make you feel confortable with the choice you make and provide you a way to migrate to an alternate platform in the future. Avoid vendor lock-in !
Performance of different type of the Guest OS hosting on the virtual hypervisor.
Performance of the storage devices connected with the Virtual Server.
Good Knowledge Base with the problems/solutions.
Drivers for the not standard devices (such as ethernet,wifi etc).
Stability, support, do we have the skills within our area and does it meat our Business requirements. Also in what other stacks can it inter-great into.
e.g scom, sccm
Does it have HA and recovery modes that are simple and not hard to use. replication between Production and DR installations must be a simple.
Usability would be first come out of my mind. Going virtualization is already hard. If it is very difficult to use, it will impede use to further using the technology.
Scalability, usability, stability, performance. It can be either open or not. Lastly, given the situation, it depends on hands on experience with the product for support. Without support, it's hard to run anything.
OS and storage compatibility, scalability ease of use obiviously. But one must also consider the subsequent backup technology associated with it because virtual environments are very easy to use, but yet very hard to manage.
Infrastructure Expert at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
2014-06-20T01:43:57Z
Jun 20, 2014
in order to chose a Virtualization software, usually I think business first, meaning it has broad business applications certified stack (ERP, MRP, HR, CRM, Sales), then it must have a clear roadmap that meets IT Strategy (DRP, Backup, SDN) must have a solid support.
Server Virtualization Software enables businesses to partition a single physical server into multiple virtual servers, optimizing resource utilization and reducing costs.
This technology helps organizations enhance their IT infrastructure efficiency and flexibility by enabling the creation of isolated environments for running different applications, servers, or systems on the same hardware. It aids in improving disaster recovery, streamlining server management, and maximizing hardware usage....
Key features to consider when evaluating Server Virtualization Software include:
Scalability is crucial because as a business grows, its virtualization solution should seamlessly handle increased workloads without degrading performance. Security features help protect data from unauthorized access. Compatibility ensures the software can integrate with existing systems and hardware. Performance is critical to ensure server efficiency and resource utilization.
Good management tools simplify the process of managing multiple virtual machines, allowing for easy monitoring and adjustments. Intuitive management tools enable administrators to minimize downtime and deliver optimal resource distribution. The choice of Server Virtualization Software will heavily impact IT infrastructure management, making it vital to focus on software that ensures efficient allocation and utilization of resources.
When assessing Server Virtualization Software, one of the most crucial aspects to consider is scalability. Scalability ensures that the software can efficiently handle increasing workloads and accommodate growth in your organization's needs over time. This includes the ability to easily add or remove virtual machines, allocate resources dynamically, and adapt to changing business requirements without significant downtime or disruptions. Scalability ensures that the virtualization solution can support your organization's growth and evolving demands effectively, providing a stable and flexible infrastructure for your IT environment.
For me personally all of the above are relevant, (except comments like virtual environments are very easy to use, but yet very hard to manage, they're not, they're just different and require more than a Windows Skillset) however I traditionally start from where its going to end and so the question is, what is this going to leave behind? What is the legacy of implementing this? If implementing something causes a technology or vendor lock in, massive support costs, proprietary hardware, specific skills training etc, then it is to be given serious deliberation as to whether it is viable option for the business/organisation in the long term. So my most important criteria is legacy followed by Can we do a Proof of Concept for free therefore minimising investment to just engineering time.
A good solution must meet a balance between cost, performance, management, availability and scalability.
I agree with all of the above I will add a -no nonsense approach-...a big dose of simplicity--many a software that has a great capability is immediately thrown out by users or Tech guys and cause a tremendous loss of business hours because of its highly Academic approach and fancy wordings. Here are some examples..Yahoo is successful because of its straight forward interface.
Google one line search approach is another example..Windows 8 was not successful because of its nonsense interface..VMWare workstation is the best example of a successful Interface...One will not need much support if the software is TIDY..in today s age time is of the essence...Tech people must be able to intuitively navigate and learn on the spot and so are the user .so INTERFACE is KEY followed by what the gentlemen described.
Maturity, support, cost, ability to clone and move VMs.Â
I run Oracle Linux with VirtualBox which has the Ksplice feature that allows me to update without reboots which means my virtual machines get fewer interruptions due to updates.
Price, Ease of Use, Integration & Support
- Scalability
- Stability
- TCO and ROI
- Manageability
Hardware/software compatibility
Performance
ROI
Scalability
Price, stability, functionality, ease of use, tooling, third party intergration
compute, network, storage, & scalability
Industry adoption of the software platform and historical stability of the product line.
Most Important: The ability of the software to support the business need at reasonable cost -- initial costs as well as ongoing support costs. In my case, I'm looking to create a virtual sandbox for Windows application testing as a VM within my existing machine that does not have adverse affects on my daily operations.
Hardware isolation
Backup and recovery
Monitoring and Management
Security: VPN, Firewall, SSH access
Tooling: Automation, REST API, CLI
Alerts and notifications
Scalability, stability, ease of deployment and straightforward operational support. Finally, good technical support from the vendor.
Which also should be cost effective.
1. TCO and ROI
2. Manageability
Scalability, built in automation and self-service application integration and completeness.
Meets the requirements of all aspects
Availability of services
Customer Service
High availability of services.....
Reliability, Performance, Ease of Management, Support and TCO
Performance, Reliability and Support.
1. Reliability
2. Scalability
3. Flexibility
4. TCO
Automation capabilities
Definitely stability, scale and performance.
1. Scalability/Reliability associated with business requirements.
2. Network Security
3. Easy management and handling of disasters.
4. Low OPEX and high ROI
Supportability, Scalability, Flexibility and Performance.
Strong solution with fast ROI. Ease of use, and well known in Fortune 500
ease of management, scalability, good features and of course stability
Compatibility with existing systems, ease of setup and configuration.
the best solution should be a balance between performance, management, availability, scalability and cost
When you are researching by a virtualization solution, you must to have in mind what you hop from this technology and how much do you intend to grow (how their environment can grow in a not too distant future).
With this in mind, you can see that we have many possibilities, but some one of them can generate additional costs if you have to increase the environment in a short time period.
Based in this criterias, you need to consider ROI and Scalability as main characteristics to acquire a virtualization system.
In a first moment, a cheaper solution can seems the best, but as said before, if you have to increase the environment quickly, this solution that seemed cheaper could become the most expensive.
Self service provision with seamless interoperability with other proprietary and open source vitalization solutions.
Easy to deploy, OS compatibility, user friendly, stability, reliability, security, scalability, suitable price with the performance
For me, the most important factor is whether it meets the customer's needs or not. There are many use cases for all of the virtualization platforms and not one does everything perfectly. Price is always a factor in meeting the customer's needs, a lot of times the feature list comes after the price.
Beside current requirements fulfillment, Future Enhancements and Capability in case we have double or even more bigger infra. Backup, HA and Fault Tolerance.
i would say live migration scalability, compatibility with backup and storage solutions. efficacy and licensing cost.
the ease of operation
live migration
The System Performance and Cost for the solution.
To reduce the number of physical server using virtualization and optimize the resources in the cost effective way.
* Interoperability with storage systems for reliable HA, vMotion, DRS operations.
* Easy-to-configure process & supportive help files(with diagrammatic representaions) for any new operations included. With this any feature could be executed without any hassle.
Ease of use (especially management), flexibility and scalability.
Virtualization most important criteria
- scalability (being ability to move and build more without outage)
- flexibility, and resiliency (hardware outage without application outage)
- stability (knowing that the system will be available)
- manageability (managing the system with solid tools, and not have to manage the system everyday)
Use of technology with ease of upgrade to enterprise solution.
TCO
Stability, scalability and ease of management.
Performance and efficiency. Every bit of degradation between bare metal and the VM client is a cause for concern. I am trying to balance virtualization benefits (scalability and administration) against bare metal performance benefits.
Scalability, stability, ease of deployment
Performance, easy to manage
...
As both a VMWare and Microsoft HyperV instructor, I get to experience both products in a classroom environment as well as a live environment. I look for stability and scaleability first and foremost. By far, VMWare wins hands down in these areas except costs. Now with VMWare NSX (Virtualized routing and Switching) VMware has taken the lead in this area as well. Microsoft is well behind.
Ease of use, stability, flexibility and met the business requirements.
Stability and ease of use/management
Stability, and flexible. meeting all other requirements.
99.9 % Uptime with effective of minimum cost.....!
Storage
Flexibility and easy to adapt
To meet the capability, usability, stability, performance, support and manageability towards business needs.
P2v, scalability , Migration Alternatives, Performance, Support
Flexibility, Scalability, Migration Alternatives, Performance, Support.
Main criteria would be: Scope of OSes supported; Performance & stability; Support; Costs.
SLA should be minimized, Easy to maintain and support.
Ease of end user transition followed by the difficulty to implement. Those are the top two.
The most important criterias when looking for server virtualization software are: business support, certification, features like snapshot, cloning and backup and finally, openess. Clear and supported procedures on how to migrate between the major Virtualization platforms should be made available to make you feel confortable with the choice you make and provide you a way to migrate to an alternate platform in the future. Avoid vendor lock-in !
Performance of different type of the Guest OS hosting on the virtual hypervisor.
Performance of the storage devices connected with the Virtual Server.
Good Knowledge Base with the problems/solutions.
Drivers for the not standard devices (such as ethernet,wifi etc).
Ease to Adapt & maintain and support
Stability, support, do we have the skills within our area and does it meat our Business requirements. Also in what other stacks can it inter-great into.
e.g scom, sccm
Does it have HA and recovery modes that are simple and not hard to use. replication between Production and DR installations must be a simple.
Flexibility, scalability towards business needs.
Inter-interoperability with other vitalization Software and open source solution!
Usability would be first come out of my mind. Going virtualization is already hard. If it is very difficult to use, it will impede use to further using the technology.
Stablity
Easy scalability and management of VM. Also important is backup and restor of single instances.
End to End Security and all that is commented by Phil Durbin
Cost per user, scalability and how management of VM can be decentralized to end users
Most important is it should support most of your application, then come the stability and scalability. Also do not miss the word backup,
P2V and V2P features.
Depend of business, but apply for most ROI, escalibity and flexibility.
Active Active failover between data centers and a single dashboard to cover all the various parts of the virtualization platform.
Scalability, usability, stability, performance. It can be either open or not. Lastly, given the situation, it depends on hands on experience with the product for support. Without support, it's hard to run anything.
Scalability, stability, ease of deployment and straightforward operational support. Finally, good technical support from the vendor.
OS and storage compatibility, scalability ease of use obiviously. But one must also consider the subsequent backup technology associated with it because virtual environments are very easy to use, but yet very hard to manage.
in order to chose a Virtualization software, usually I think business first, meaning it has broad business applications certified stack (ERP, MRP, HR, CRM, Sales), then it must have a clear roadmap that meets IT Strategy (DRP, Backup, SDN) must have a solid support.
ROI and scalability.
+1 for Scalability and stability and I will add that the virtualization solution must be compliant with backup software at least the well known ones.
Flexibility and ease of use
The ability of the software to meet all business requirements.