IT Virtualization Best Practices

Explosive growth in the demand for IT computing infrastructure resources has put the global IT data centers that host this infrastructure at the brink of both energy and floor space capacity. New data centers are costly, complex, and energy-hungry; at the same time, industry analysts estimate that several billions of dollars in existing server hardware is under-utilized. To address these challenges, organizations across the world have begun to leverage smarter technologies, such as virtualization. But without the benefit of a smartly engineered transformation effort, virtualization technologies alone have fallen short of providing the business value that resonates with an organization's lines of business.

This book guides you successfully toward a lean virtualization implementation, using an approach based on service patterns to transform IT infrastructures to a virtualized state. Derived from the collective knowledge of an internationally recognized and globally experienced team of authors, the patterns address the seven "lean levers" that are the building blocks of the patterns for virtualization: segmenting complexity, redistributing activities, pooling resources, flexibly balancing resources, reducing incoming hardware infrastructure and work, reducing non-value-adding work, and standardizing operations. You will also learn how to manage IT infrastructures while optimizing technical and organizational resources to provide compelling business value for the organization.

With IT Virtualization Best Practices, you will learn how to:

• Become more productive in managing overall costs
• Be agile in provisioning new business services and improving time to market
• Be proactive in catering to rapidly changing business models and client demands
• Become more "charged" as an engine for fueling business growth
• Produce direct value to clients by optimizing their value chain
• Enjoy greater success improving shareholder equity