Microsoft, which launched its Hyper-V platform earlier this year, is warning businesses that the tremendous benefits of virtualization can be hampered by issues such as increased power consumption.
Quoted in Inquirer.net, Bill Hilf, Windows Server and platform strategy general manager, said most customers run Microsoft’s virtualization technology on infrastructure hardware such as file servers. He said increased server load and virtualization implementations in an improperly configured data center can negate any cost-cutting measures.
However, other problems exist that companies should look at before adopting virtual environments too.
The biggest one is complexity. In an interview with CNET News, Bob Waldie, CEO of open source management services provider Opengear, calls this issue the “dark side” of virtualization. While improving flexibility and asset utilization, Waldie says, virtualization causes complexity by adding an extra hypervisor layer to the load.
Making things even more complex are hybrid virtual-physical environments. Other complexity problems 
will creep up too. You’ll have to manage significantly more metrics and alerts for one.
But these challenges are hardly the dark side of virtualization. They are easily manageable with the right tools. Virtualization management offers automation and proactive monitoring of virtual machines. Server virtualization management tools also help pinpoint problems to their root causes—drastically reducing guess work and increasing troubleshooting accuracy.
Virtualization offers a myriad benefits. But no company should sail into the virtualization waters alone. It’s much easier with a trusted partner.
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