Virtualisation will be the most-important trend for servers through 2012, but there are six basic best practices enterprises should consider before they virtualise their servers, according to Gartner, Inc.

While the return on investment (ROI) is compelling, virtualisation can be implemented badly in costs, management strategy, approach, architecture and software. Many of these problems can be avoided if enterprises make the proper assessments before they virtualise their machines.

"In the next five years, the immature server virtualisation market will mature, as competition evolves and forces changes in pricing," said John Enck, vice president and research director at Gartner. "Most enterprises can't afford to wait for the market to mature — server sprawl, data centre space and power problems are here now. Organisations deploying at least 50 virtual machines per year will be able to build a business case with rapid ROI now."

"With the right virtualisation approach and strategy, and with a long-term plan on the changes that virtualisation will make to server management processes and tools, enterprises will effectively leverage virtualisation now and will re-architect their servers to become a more efficient, fluid pool of dynamic capacity," said Thomas Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Not only will data center space and power problems be resolved, at least temporarily, but IT will become a much more efficient and flexible provider of server capacity to its customers."

Gartner has identified the six best practices to consider for companies virtualise their servers. They are as follows:

Start Small, Think Big- Although OEMs and consultants will recommend large-scale server virtualizations, Gartner advises that from a cost, management and cultural point of view, starting small is the right way to go. There are two very different phases to server virtualisation deployments. The first phase focuses on server consolidation, cost savings and increased hardware use. The second phase is more strategically important, more complex to implement and provides far more value for the customer. In this phase, the focus shifts to delivering new services or improving the quality and speed of service.

Require a Rapid ROI- Gartner recommends that a business case for server virtualisation should show a full return on investment within six months or less. Generally, companies deploying 50 virtual machines or more in a year will be able to make a good business case.

Virtualise the Right Applications- In particular, applications with high input output needs can be inefficient on virtual machines and applications that are effectively utilising established hardware are not going to generate savings. The best applications to focus on tend to be older, smaller packaged applications.

Define Your Storage Strategy- Deciding how and where to store virtual images and application data are critical factors in determining how much agility companies get from virtualised deployments.
Understand Software Issues- Gartner predicts that software pricing and licensing will remain problematic for the near future. Until new pricing models are found, users should seek to understand independent software vendor’s (ISV’s) pricing and licensing policies in as much detail as possible and accept that until ISV issues are resolved, smaller servers will be the norm.

Combine Virtual Machines Effectively- It is much more important to come up with a flexible process for dynamically relocating server capacity than it is to devise a perfect static consolidation mapping. Workloads change and being able to deal with these changes dynamically is a key goal, particularly in the early stages of virtualisation.