Virtualizacion

July 2009

The Business Value Of Virtualization
A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of VMware

The Business Value Of Virtualization

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 3  Key Findings...................................................................................................................................... 3  Today’s Dilemma: IT Inefficiency Reigns Supreme .............................................................................. 4  Bad Utilization .................................................................................................................................... 4  Massive Cost Of Management.......................................................................................................... 5  Many Applications Aren’t Designed For Flexibility............................................................................ 5  Key Capabilities Provide Far-Reaching Benefits .................................................................................. 6  Virtualization Frees IT To DoMore ........................................................................................................ 6  Cost Savings ...................................................................................................................................... 8  Better Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery ....................................................................... 10  FasterTime-To-Market For New Applications ................................................................................ 11  Study Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 12  Appendix A: Methodology.................................................................................................................... 16  Appendix B: Endnotes .......................................................................................................................... 16 
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The Business Value Of Virtualization

Executive Summary
In May 2009, VMware commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the business value ofx86 server virtualization. In particular, Forrester interviewed individuals responsible for the IT infrastructure architecture, including VP and C-level individuals, at 29 large enterprises about why their company invested in virtualization and the specific ways it has improved IT efficiency or flexibility. In particular, we asked executives to rate the benefits received from consolidatingservers, performing business continuity/disaster recovery, reclaiming data center capacity, and executing similar initiatives.

Key Findings
Based on our executive interviews, Forrester found that server virtualization technologies have delivered benefits that executives could clearly explain. Overall, Forrester found that: • IT becomes more efficient. Beyond just hardware savings from consolidation,virtualization optimizes infrastructure costs and increases operational efficiency. Plus, firms were able to reclaim capacity (space, power, and cooling) in their data centers, postponing costly expansion plans. Time-to-market is faster. Virtualization speeds server and application deployment, makes configurations more consistent, and simplifies the staging of applications across test and...