Notes From the Field: Virtualization Strategy @ the customer
Last week I gave a System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 session for a Belgian partner and I had the opportunity to talk to some of the IT Pro's who attended my session and here is an excerpt of a mail I received from one of those IT Professionals who relies on our Technology to run their infrastructure.
Following your presentation and our discussion, I would like to provide you with more information on my current virtualization strategy & projects :
Strategy
A resources optimization initiative set off a new Infrastructure Strategy. The core approach is centralizing IT resource management achieve consolidation and move forward to a more dynamic infrastructure while reducing costs.
High Level Description and Scope
The main scope is reducing the number of legacy servers via Virtualization Technology. The new Infrastructure relies on high-speed SAN and IP network. The backbone builds on Microsoft System Center and Virtual Server Technologies and SQL 2005 as highly available datatier
Pillars
Secure
The Infrastructure meets our customers highest security requirements including advanced auditing, reporting, use of strong Kerberos Based authentication and authorization along with SSL encryption
Integrated
The backbone fully integrates with Active Directory, Exchange and MOM 2005 legacy Infrastructure
Available - Resilient
High Availability is achieved using Virtual Server 2005R2SP1 and Microsoft Cluster Integration. The resiliency is achieved via System Center Data Protection Manager which provides advanced snapshots and ability to quickly recover virtual machines.
Scalable and Flexible
The infrastructure has been designed to adapt to the customer demands. Flexibility is achieved via System Center Virtual Machine Manager which delivers fast and efficient provisioning from a single management console. Furthermore the design is ready for next generation Hypervisor Hyper-V
Competitiveness
The chosen solution is highly economical and achieves 45% difference with VMWare competitor while bringing unique advantages.
