C O N S U L T IN G P R O G R A M S

Guide to Virtual Infrastructure Implementation

Virtualization Value K ey Changes w ithin IT infrastructure

Virtualization provides opportunities to improve service levels Rolling out virtualization can introduce change w ithin the IT
and low er capital and operating costs to provide and maintain infrastructure and the organization requiring, IT management to
IT infrastructure. O ver the past five years many organizations properly guide and sponsor the activities. A range ofIT processes
have specifically deployed VM w are infrastructure softw are on and infrastructure designs are commonly affected by
industry standard systems to significantly reduce their virtualization. Specific know ledge and skill sets around
hardw are, data center and operational coasts—many report 70- virtualization need to be developed during the design, planning
80% costs savings and 3-6 month RO Iperiods—w hile achieving and first phase deployment. IT processes around application,
unexpected gains in operational flexibility, efficiency, and capacity and hardw are provisioning is the most fundamental area
agility. To date over one million server w orkloads have been that requires re-engineering to achieve an implementation that
virtualized on this infrastructure. 90% ofour customers are now scales across multiple terms. In many cases, a straightforw ard
rolling out this infrastructure for production usage. evolution ofcurrent technical standards and operational
processes w ill achieve a smooth integration ofvirtual
K ey Success Factors infrastructure into existing practices.
Based on the experiences ofour customers, implementing
O perational Readiness
virtual infrastructure is achievable and manageable. H ow ever,
O perational Readiness is defined as the maturity an enterprise
because virtualization is still a relatively new technology that
must reach to achieve full benefit from a virtual environment. As
can touch a broad set ofIT stakeholders and processes, cultural
the number ofvirtual machines deployed and the scope of use
resistance can stall or limit many deployments, particularly in
across the organization increases, the level ofcapability to
larger enterprise organization. To achieve the benefits of
manage critical processes determines the maturity level. In order
virtualization beyond a tactical and isolated project-oriented
to scale and proliferate virtualization technology, processes and
deployment, w e’ve found that the follow ing considerations
operations must become more mature and robust.
and strategies help organizations address cultural and
organizational challenges.
Successful implementations require the expansion ofvirtual
machines and critical processes to be delicately balanced w ith the
• Top-dow n sponsorship ensures the appropriate levels of
capabilities and maturity ofthe virtual environment. W ithout
funding, staffing and cooperation from all groups w ithin
measuring balanced progress along the Adoption Curve, an
the enterprise.
enterprise may either over-commit (too many services on
• Treat virtualization as an architecturaldecision that leads
immature virtual infrastructure)or under-commit (not enough
to a corporate IT standard and a new model ofdelivering
services on mature virtual infrastructure). Each ofthese states can
infrastructure resources.
cause lengthy delays, or even failure, in reaching the desired
• D esign for the big picture and deploy increm entally to
scalability and associated return on investment.
low er risk, build confidence and achieve early RO I(target 6
months).
V irtualization A doption Curve
• Achieve and maintain stakeholder buy-in as the cultural
changes required to roll out new technology requires
! "
cross-department cooperation. #
• Form a core virtualization team—a Center of
Excellence—chartered to design, operate and drive
internal changes.
• Create high quality design utilizing best practices to
minimize issues and establish proficient w ays for tracking $%
&
and remediation.
• Refine virtualization processes w ith standardized and
m easurable practices. ' %
• Start w ith an assessm ent ofthe “as is”organizational and &

technical readiness and design a vision for your desired

end state.
 Path to O perational Readiness D esired End State
Phase I:A ssess There are m any options and directions that the roadm ap to
An O perational Readiness Assessment w ill establish the current virtualization can take depending on the unique needs ofyour
state along the Virtualization Adoption Curve and determine organization.The suggested phased approach w illenable you
how w ell the IT infrastructure environment is understood and to experience success and provide a solid foundation from
documented. Create a detailed inventory and assess w hich to expand.Regardless ofthe size or solution area ofa
infrastructure assets per project including applications, services, virtualization im plem entation,strive to reach the follow ing set
CPU s, drives, N ICs and RAM . Then measure performance, ofobjectives as a m eans to m easure progress tow ard a desired
end state.
utilization statistics and trends. Review current and planned
• Tested standard operating procedures
projects for impact and identify candidate projects for
collaboration. In addition, a high level review ofbusiness • D efined policies,such as change m anagem ent and
security
applications infrastructure is important input into planning
• Im plem ented roles and responsibilities across the
migrations to a virtual environment.
enterprise—not just CoE
• Prim ed for virtualinfrastructure proliferation and future
Phase 2:Plan/D esign
services
From the O perational Readiness A ssessment a Roadmap
• H igh availability across core,integration points w ith
clearly documents the operational design and project plan for enterprise system s
implementation ofvirtual infrastructure. The objective is to • Standardized processes
understand the impact ofvirtualization on the IT organization
• A ccepted plan for next phase—virtualization ofprocess,
and infrastructure in terms ofdeployment, design, operations such as chargeback,disaster recovery or com pliance
and support and then move to a virtual infrastructure w here
w orkloads are distributed efficiently to maximize capacity The decision to im plem ent a virtualinfrastructure w ithin your
utilization. Review by stakeholders and cross-department buy- enterprise is a sm art one that w illprovide num erous financial
in helps overcome resistance to cultural changes. In addition, and operationalbenefits to your organization.This practical
the Roadmap defines requirements for the new environment im plem entation strategy provides a key m ilestone as you
(e.g. hardw are, service levels, monitoring and reporting). continue to grow the fullvalue ofa virtualization environm ent.

Phase 3:Build The concepts w ithin this docum ent represent a sum m ary ofthe
Successful execution ofthe Roadmap requires clear direction as w hitepaper on Road to VirtualInfrastructure:Practical
to w hat must be done and w ho can do it. Therefore, building Im plem entation Strategies.For the next levelofdetail
dow nload this paper from w w w .vam w are.com under Services:
virtual capacity has many dependencies on other teams such
H ow to Buy.
as netw ork, storage, design and support groups. Execution of
test plans demonstrate that all the virtualization success criteria
For M ore Information
have been met and that core features and fault tolerance w ork
as expected. Steps to building out a virtual environment VM w are ProfessionalServices can help you build your roadm ap
include getting the necessary approvals, scheduling needed to virtualization and achieve rapid tim e-to-value.
resources, installing hardw are, completing configurations and M ore inform ation about VM w are softw are and services can be
building the virtual machines. found at http://w w w .vmw are.com and from your local
VM w are representative.
Phase 4:M anage
O perations guides and “run books”must be extended to
include all production capabilities ofvirtualization such as back
up and restore, adding new files systems, patching/upgrading
and monitoring. O ngoing management and improvement may
mean expanding into areas ofvirtualization such as desktop or
business continuity or going deeper into processes like service
desk integration or incident management.

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© 2007 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,961,941, 6,961,806, 6,944,699,
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