RSSPepsi Bottler Swallows Skepticism About Virtualization
One IT leader's cautious move into virtual servers and storage virtualization tastes sweet so far. Here's a look at the strategy and savings.
It took about a half-hour to get back up and running after a SQL virtual server crashed recently. That's a huge improvement over the days when G&J had everything on tape.
"Just outside of five years ago, if you lost a server, you were rebuilding and reloading an operating system and grabbing all your data from tapes," he says. "Your downtime was a good solid eight to 10 hours."
Messer estimates he's saving between $11,000 and $13,000 per year because of storage and server virtualization.
That's not to say life with virtualization is perfect. USB storage devices aren't compatible with G&J's virtual machines, Messer says. He's working with VMware to solve the problem but hasn't come up with a fix yet.
"You can make the USB device visible to your ESX Server, however your virtual servers won't see it," he says. "It's a minor limitation."
© 2007 Network World Inc.
virtualization
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