Data center managers are quickly realizing the benefits of virtualization, including reduced power consumption, improved server utilization, increased availability by reducing planned downtime, and reduced costs. However, with these benefits comes a new layer of complexity. Heterogeneity is common in data centers and most include multiple operating systems (both virtual and physical), different virtual machines, and storage and tape vendors. Interoperability is critical to managing this heterogeneity.

As many organizations look to realize the benefits of server virtualization for production, several considerations must be examined before deploying production applications on virtual platforms. After all, production environments have tougher availability standards, demand tighter control, and have less room for error.