IT Assessment Service – Virtualization

PTS’ Data Center Virtualization Assessment Service provides IT Managers with analysis and feedback related to the implementation of a Virtualization Strategy. The service provides viable strategic recommendations in pursuit of a Virtualization Strategy and outlines the business and technology risks associated with implementing this strategy or doing nothing at all, as well as a high level budget and timeline for completion of the proposed project.

PTS will use these high-level decisions as a baseline in a cost model matrix to identify their affect on overall project costs across multiple scenarios, thus allowing the client to narrow the scope of the project to one that is affordable, yet meets their business needs.

Completion of this service requires the PTS’ Needs Analysis – Virtualization (to establish future storage requirements) and, where there is a server or virtualized server infrastructure in place, a Site Survey Service – Virtualization (to gather existing conditions information) as prerequisites before a complete assessment can be made.

PTS’ Solutions Architects will perform a detailed assessment of the current server and storage infrastructure (physical and virtualized) as acquired during the Site Survey and compare to the needs of the organization in the future as acquired during the Needs Analysis. The Assessment – Virtualization Service provides the following outcomes and recommendations for the client:

• Virtualization of the existing enterprise versus the future need for server and/or SAN virtualization
• Identification of current virtualization techniques and solutions used throughout the enterprise for IT infrastructure equipment (servers and storage area networks) and recommendations how to improve for cost benefits and performance
• Targeted opportunities for improved server and SAN virtualization and consolidation to drive enhanced cost structures, performance, and management of the infrastructure
• Aggressive and Moderate Scenarios for implementation of virtualization within the enterprise
• Opportunities for enhanced operational flexibility and responsiveness in terms of management, upgrades of servers and applications software, provisioning, configuration, monitoring, and maintenance
• Alternatives for desktop manageability and security across the enterprise with faster deployments of desktops and fewer support calls due to application conflicts
• Review of current actual costs, operational flexibility, and responsiveness provided by virtualization of infrastructure versus alternative virtualization strategies
• Current tools used for server optimization and management of the virtual infrastructure
• Actual server and SAN spending as a percentage of total IT budget and how this compares if using virtualization strategies

PTS’ Virtualization Assessment Service serves as the assess phase in the progression of the data center project process.