Virtualization, the buzzword in the industry, is trying to address the entire IT infrastructure requirement under one umbrella, and it has definitely helped IT management teams to better manage their infrastructure. But when we turn the coin around, the flip side of it has an equally significant narrative. 

  
One of the key benefits of virtualization is IT infrastructure management. However, the technology has introduced a new layer of complexity since enterprises follow different approaches and solutions from different vendors. Managing virtual machines is hence a huge challenge.

“Like all physical severs, virtual servers too require patch management, performance tuning and troubleshooting of the application errors. In parallel, you also need to manage the virtual infrastructure, though with fewer number of physical servers. As the production infrastructure grows massively, so does the challenge of managing virtual machines,” says Rajeev Verma, Practice Manager- Platform Integration at Wipro Infotech.                           
    
As enterprises expand their use of virtualization technologies, the reality of managing large numbers of virtual machines on different heterogeneous platforms presents a significant challenge. For instance, in the physical world, the addition of a server could be easily tracked. With virtualization, any user with sufficient administrative privileges can create new virtual machines.

“Since the virtual server creation is just a mouse click away, it increases the virtual server sprawl resulting in wasting of the resources like storage and memory. This requires a proper management of the virtual instances,” says Verma of Wipro Infotech. Left unmonitored, this can lead to a virtual machine sprawl. Many organizations have today reached a point where they do not know how many virtual machines they have in place. Without an effective management solution, the cost savings gained from virtualization will be defeated by the increased costs incurred due to power, licensing and management issues.

 
The different vendor platforms involved often increases management complexity in server virtualization. Says Seema Ambastha, Director-Technology, VMware India, “The vendor platform may be different, but this is inconsequential if they are deployed as per ‘best practice’ guidelines. In fact virtualization allows customers to leverage existing investments without having to rip and replace everything.” 

   
Virtualization also creates new challenges in training and upgrading skill sets as management teams need to have skills that encompass servers, storage, networks, applications and security. Organizations hence need to have a holistic perspective. Neglecting one particular domain can lead to serious consequences. For instance, analyst firm Gartner recently warned that many virtualization deployment projects were being undertaken without involving the information security team in the initial architecture and planning stages. As a result, the research firm has said that till 2012, 60 percent of virtualized servers will be less secure than the physical servers they replace.

Low levels of automation can further increase complexity in virtualization across platforms. “The skillsets required to manage a complex virtual environment are not possible manually. We need to have proper IT automation software for real-time capacity planning,” says Santanu Ghose, Country Manager–Business Critical Systems & Nonstop Servers for the Technology Solutions Group in HP India.

Sanchit Vir Gogia, Associate Research Manager, Springboard Research, points core virtualization challenges like security, resource starvation and lack of application awareness. Gogia explains, “With multiple applications running on one server, there are back-up challenges that need to be addressed. While virtualization leads to increase in utilization, it also increases the burden of hardware resources leading to what is called 'resource starvation'.  

    
Licensing is another huge challenge. “It is still a grey area and companies are yet to figure out appropriate licensing models for themselves,” says Gogia.

 
In conclusion, while virtualization presents huge challenges, the benefits outweigh the challenges involved. Further, these challenges can be mitigated if the virtualization initiative is planned properly and organizations have a detailed inventory level classification of virtual machines. By following a process-based approach, organizations can mitigate challenges of deploying virtual machines from different vendors.