A while ago, I discussed the seven disadvantages of server virtualization. Cost was one factor that I did not cover in that post. Questioning whether one can reduce costs with server virtualization sounds a bit like blasphemy these days. You will hardly find an article about server virtualization that does not claim that it is the best way to save costs in the data center. According to this view, server consolidation is the main benefit for virtualizing servers.

The arguments supporting this claim are so obvious that most IT managers do not dare question them. Replacing ten physical servers with just one seems to be the best cost-saving measure one can think of - and since the Green IT hype began, even CEOs talk about power-saving in the data center. The calculation seems to be quite easy, too: ten horses require ten times as much hay as one horse. Every CEO can understand that. So does it really make sense to challenge the costs saving axiom of server virtualization? I think it does.

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• Early Access Program for PacketTrap PerspectiveMSP. http://is.gd/1wgQ It is a new multi-site network management platform. I reviewed pt360, their network engineer’s tool suite, before. http://is.gd/1whe
• Apple now worth more than Google http://is.gd/1wk2 Hard to believe. Microsoft is still number one followed by IBM, Apple, and Google.
• Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides updated http://is.gd/1w8K
• 218,000 Servers in Microsoft Data Centers? http://is.gd/1w72 Are they all running Windows Server? Imagine the license costs
• Microsoft opens two way discussion about Windows 7 in a new blog. It’s your chance to influence the development of Win7. http://is.gd/1soH
• Hyper-V: Creating highly available virtual machines http://is.gd/1vWB Nice step-by-step guide about Hyper-V and Failover Cluster.
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 http://is.gd/1vVB

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Thanks to everyone who took part in my survey! The results were quite interesting. This information is important for me because it helps me to improve 4sysops. Some of you submitted comments about my blog; I am publishing them without names at the end of this article.

Most of your comments were quite positive, which surprised me a little. I think this is due to the fact that only those of you who really like my blog were willing to spend some time answering all the questions. If you didn’t take part in the survey, you still have the chance to tell me your opinion of my blog in the comments section below. Critical responses are welcome too! So, if you think that I am a Microsoft fanboy, just go ahead and say it! But do me favor: watch your language. This is a family program. If you don’t want to comment publicly, you can use my contact form.

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Should you get rid of Windows Vista and convert Windows Server 2008 to a workstation so you can run it comfortably on your desktop or laptop? In this post, I will discuss the most common pros and cons on this topic. Instructions on how to convert Windows Server 2008 to a workstation edition have been spreading on the Web for some time. With the free Windows Server 2008 Workstation Converter by sawo, this process is now much easier and faster. I tried the tool today, and it took me about 15 minutes to convert Windows Server 2008 to Windows Workstation 2008.

Let’s first discuss the alleged advantages.

Performance

This reason is the most often cited. You know, there are some rumors going around that Vista is slow. Some bloggers ran benchmark tests comparing Vista to Windows Server 2008 [1] [2] [3], and they all claim that Server 2008 is faster than Vista. It seems like the performance gains range from 10% to 20%. However, I am not 100% sure if one can trust these tests because performance depends heavily on Windows configuration. For example, if you have Windows Search enabled on Vista, but not on Server 2008, you certainly will get useless test results.
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It seems that this was the longest series I ever wrote in this blog. The more I learned about this relatively new technology the more I was fascinated about it. By the way, German speaking readers might be interested in my new article about “Applikationsvirtualisierung” at Computerwoche. This post is probably the last one about software virtualization for the moment, although I might review another product sometime later. There might also be an article about the results of this poll.

I don’t want to influence your decision too much, thus I will keep this post short. I just want to add one further note. The funny thing about application virtualization is that it brings us back to the pre-Windows period. Do you remember the good old DOS times when applications were residing on a Novel Netware server? No installation was required on desktop computers, the term “registry” was only associated with public authorities, and administrators (called supervisors at the time) didn’t have the slightest idea that, only a few years later, Microsoft would send them to “DLL hell!”

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The features of software virtualization solutions that I address in this article are special in the sense that they don’t stand for conceptual differences. Nevertheless, they might turn out to be important or even decisive for your environment.

Settings: You might want to allow end users to configure their applications or install plug-ins by themselves. This means that they have to have the ability to modify the virtual environment. The various products solve this problem in different ways. Some tools allow you to store these settings on a server, thereby supporting application roaming.

Linking: This feature is related to the one above. Some products enable you to link virtualized apps. For example, one virtual environment could host the .Net Framework for .Net apps running in other virtualized environments. This feature can also be used to deploy add-ons. The more sophisticated solutions enable you to centrally manage the links between virtualized apps for your whole network. For instance, you could assign the Google Toolbar to a certain user group with just a mouse click.

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When I started this series I thought application virtualization solutions to be rather simple tools. In the meantime, I tested some of them and read quite a few white papers about the topic. I discovered that there are far more products than I imagined and that the technological differences between the different solutions are substantial. In this and the next article I will summarize all the features that I am aware of.

Thus, if you have to evaluate some of the products, you can use this feature list to make sure that the solution of your choice supports everything you need in your environment. This post covers the conceptual differences between the various application virtualization products. In my next my post I will discuss the special features. Please note that it is not always obvious to which list a certain feature belongs.

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My list of advantages of application virtualization did get quite long. My list of the disadvantages is shorter which doesn’t necessarily mean that the upsides outweigh the downsides.

A new complexity layer: Most Windows apps were not developed to run in a virtual environment. This might cause unforeseen problems. Whenever problems occur, you will wonder whether the app itself or the virtualized environment is the cause.

Vendor might deny support: If you tell your vendor that you are running their application in a virtual environment, they might deny support.

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It has been a while since I posted the last article in my series about software virtualization. I have been working on a German article about this topic. During my research I learned new things which I am going to share in the next posts in this series. Today’s post covers the advantages of application virtualization. Of course, there also disadvantages which I will address in the next post.

No installation required: Installing an application on hundreds or thousands of computers is prone to error. Application virtualization simplifies software deployment.

Application retirement simplified: Getting rid of an app in your whole network is much easier as well. Since virtual apps just have to be deleted, uninstalling them is usually not required.

No more application conflicts: Sometimes installing an app corrupts another app. Application virtualization helps reduce the risks of application conflicts.

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The Vista bashing campaign continues, so I can’t help myself and blog about it again. Computerworld presents new data from Forrester with an article entitled “Forrester survey: Enterprises reject Vista like ‘new Coke‘”. I will write about the same data in this post, but as you might have noticed, I used a slightly different heading. After you have read my version of the story, you will have to acknowledge that sometimes reality is a matter of perspective.

The hard facts of the Forrester survey are that 8.8% of 50,000 enterprise users are running Windows Vista on their PCs and 87.1% Windows XP. Now, I am asking where is the connection to sugar water? Did those 87.1% decide to stay with XP because Vista didn’t taste sweet enough? Or do these enterprise users just use the Windows version that their IT departments installed on their PCs?

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