{"id":5653,"date":"2006-02-10T17:34:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-10T17:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/windowsserver\/2006\/02\/10\/virtualization-as-a-platform-feature-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2006-02-10T17:34:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-10T17:34:00","slug":"virtualization-as-a-platform-feature-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/blog\/2006\/02\/10\/virtualization-as-a-platform-feature-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtualization as a Platform Feature – Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cShould I virtualize everything?\u201d This is a question I am frequently asked by customers who are in the earlier phases of virtualization. There are a number of things to consider, including both technology and other factors. A couple of years ago, even some virtualization industry players encouraged customers to attempt to virtualize everything right now. However, the reality is that server virtualization imposes some I\/O constraints on the virtual instances that don\u2019t work well with high-throughput applications. Even though the performance of the virtualization software has improved over the last few years, CPU and I\/O intensive applications, such as heavy transaction processing, high-throughput web front-ends, storage management servers and the like don\u2019t typically work well with virtualization software that is available today. There is also the question of internal skills and readiness. Virtualization, like any other technology, has it\u2019s own set of technical and operational knowledge required to implement effectively. Thirdly, there is the question of management tools. Microsoft began updating it\u2019s platform management tools, Systems Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) in 2004 to work well across physical and virtual instances. Additionally, there are some point solutions and virtualization layer specific management tools available today. However, many of these virtualization specific management tools come at a high cost. Customers need to evaluate the cost\/benefit of utilizing a solution-specific management tool. Finally, many customers that I talk to about server virtualization are concerned about licensing issues. In fact, several customers have told me that one of the reasons why they haven\u2019t deployed server virtualization more broadly is because of concerns around licensing. Even on mature platforms, such as the mainframe, where virtualization has been available for some time, I can\u2019t say that licensing terms are clear to the system administrators.<\/p>\n
While Microsoft is making large investments in virtualization technology, we recognize that it is only part of the solution. Getting your IT investments to do more, whether it\u2019s a router or a server or even a virtual OS, is top of mind for everyone these days. Microsoft has also been working on helping customers do more with a single installation of the OS, as well. We started with some of the less complicated workloads to consolidate, such as file and print and web workloads. Starting with Windows Server 2003, especially, we provide the server consolidation technology and guidance<\/a> which enables customers to reduce the number of moving parts they support, to lower costs and increase agility. For new application development, Microsoft\u2019s .NET provides application isolation for security and reliability within the same OS instance.<\/p>\n