Tips

Tips

Virtualization costs, licensing and support issues

• Compare the top 5 bare-metal hypervisors

  Hypervisors such as VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, RHV and Oracle VM Server for x86 provide value to enterprise-level data centers in different ways.  Continue Reading

• Small business virtualization grows in mature market

  Virtualization isn't only for large enterprises anymore. New technology at cheaper prices has made SMB virtualization practical, while increased competition has made it necessary.  Continue Reading

• Mitigate Windows Server 2016 licensing cost concerns

  Microsoft's Windows Server 2016 licensing change could put a serious strain on IT budgets. Though it carries performance risks, IT admins can defray costs with a split environment.  Continue Reading

• A VMware licensing guide to expanding your environment

  Aside from initial budgeting for VMware products, there are some practical aspects of licensing to consider, including different configurations and maintenance.  Continue Reading

• Windows Server 2016 licensing will spur change from users, chip makers

  Microsoft's Windows Server 2016 licensing will move from a per-CPU model to a per-core model, a costly change for customers with more than eight cores per CPU.  Continue Reading

• Cut software licensing costs with fewer, faster cores

  As software vendors adapt licensing terms to a per-core model, administrators should reassess how they purchase hardware in order to save money.  Continue Reading

• Changes to software licensing models may put buyers at risk

  With the advent of virtualization, major software vendors are moving away from the per CPU licensing model toward the core licensing or per user model.  Continue Reading

• Software licensing models evolving for virtualization

  Virtualization and the rise of multi-core CPUs have led software vendors to rethink licensing models. While some are forced to adjust, others continue to resist.  Continue Reading

• Understanding Windows Server and Hyper-V licensing models

  As Microsoft prepares to make major changes to the licensing models for Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V, it's essential to understand the fundamentals of licensing in virtual environments.  Continue Reading

• Build a free Hyper-V Server failover cluster

  While it can complicate Windows Server licensing, the free Hyper-V Server allows users to build fault-tolerant environments and failover clusters.  Continue Reading

• Licensing implications of a free Hyper-V installation

  Microsoft Hyper-V is free, but there are also very good reasons to purchase Windows Server with Hyper-V rather than install the standalone hypervisor.  Continue Reading

• When to choose VMware vCenter appliance vs. a Windows install

  There are distinct advantages and limitations administrators should consider when deciding whether to use the virtual appliance version of vCenter.  Continue Reading

• When legacy Windows OS won't play nice with your hypervisor

  Try these troubleshooting options if you need to run an unsupported version of Windows as a guest OS on your VM.  Continue Reading

• How virtualization can get you into software licensing trouble

  Maintaining proper software licensing in virtual environments can be a challenge. Find a strategy to cope or you could find yourself out of compliance and in hot water.  Continue Reading

• Even a small business can take advantage of virtualization

  There are many virtualization success stories among large companies, but with more low cost options, even an SMB can take advantage of virtualization.  Continue Reading

• How to calculate proper Windows Server 2012 virtualization licensing

  Licensing virtual servers can get confusing and expensive. Brien Posey shares the ins and outs of server licensing with a Windows Server 2012 example.  Continue Reading

• Is a fully virtualized infrastructure a good idea for your business?

  Years ago, experts asked whether a fully virtualized infrastructure was even possible. That debate is settled, but is 100% virtualization a good idea?  Continue Reading

• Virtualization power management: How to save money and the Earth

  Virtualization power management is yet another way a hypervisor can help cut costs to achieve maximum ROI, with the added bonus of saving the Earth.  Continue Reading

• Pros and cons of iSCSI storage networking in virtual infrastructures

  ISCSI provides simplicity for virtualization storage networking, but iSCSI performance, network design, security and cost can present challenges.  Continue Reading

• Virtualization cost savings: Labor and maintenance

  Virtualizing your infrastructure can save money on labor and server lifecycle maintenance. With fewer physical servers, there's less to provision, monitor and maintain manually.  Continue Reading

• How to calculate ROI and TCO for virtualization projects

  Finding out how to calculate ROI and TCO can be a challenge with virtualization projects. Depend more on your ROI calculations and less on vendors' virtualization ROI calculators.  Continue Reading

• Virtualization costs include software, hardware and labor

  Virtualization software, hardware and labor will all affect your TCO and ROI calculations. Consider them all to get a true picture of your virtualization costs.  Continue Reading

• Hypervisor pricing and licensing comparison guide

  When choosing the best hypervisor, a pricing and licensing comparison is a must. VMware, Microsoft and Citrix all offer different prices and hypervisor licensing policies.  Continue Reading

• The top four Hyper-V virtualization problems that plague admins

  While Microsoft's Hyper-V R2 has made great strides, some problems still plague admins. Here are four issues with Hyper-V that continue to plague virtualization administrators.  Continue Reading

• Citrix XenServer and Essentials licensing, pricing explained

  Citrix Systems prices, licenses and supports XenServer differently from VMware's pricing method for vSphere and Microsoft's for Hyper-V.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft Hyper-V R2 pricing, licensing explained

  To manage Microsoft's Hyper-V, users need to buy System Center and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). Here we are Hyper-V licensing and pricing options.  Continue Reading

• How to make Hyper-V server virtualization licensing work for you

  The different options for Microsoft Hyper-V licensing and some real-world examples can demonstrate the savings needed to gain management approval of virtualization.  Continue Reading

• Using Diskshadow for backing up Hyper-V workloads

  For virtual machine backups, you can save on Windows Server 2008 costs with Diskshadow, an alternative to Hyper-V's Volume Shadow Copy Service.  Continue Reading

• Sizing the right hardware for high-availability Hyper-V clusters

  Because of RAM limits, Hyper-V clusters need multiple hosts as well as powerful servers so that virtualized environments don't waste space and can fail over if a host goes down.  Continue Reading

• Selecting CPU, processors and memory for virtualized environments

  There are several aspects to choosing CPU and memory for your virtual environment. In the selection process, processor speed, the number of cores needed and the type of DIMMs you use are all critical considerations. An expert outlines what you ...  Continue Reading

• Virtual desktop infrastructure with Sun Ray 2 devices

  The Sun Ray 2 series of physical client devices allows you to manage bandwidth, support multimedia and gives you options for peripheral connectivity in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) at a competitive price. An expert looks at the ...  Continue Reading