Why consider virtualizing your SharePoint farm?
The following is a list of the main drivers we have experienced in existing customer environments:
- Data Centre issues such as limited or no power and rack space available.
- Saving your company money by reducing your infrastructure footprint and reducing the power and cooling costs required.
- Green IT : reduce carbon footprint by reducing the power consumption of your organization.
- The need for greater mobility, flexibility and manageability in your data centre.
- Your salary increase and bonus 🙂 … Implementing strategies that save your company money, that promote Green IT, and that still provide a great service to end users is a fantastic way to justify your salary increase or bonus, in measurable terms, to your boss. It’s a win – win situation!
Is SharePoint virtualization supported?
One of the first questions my customers ask when considering virtualization is “Is SharePoint supported in a virtualized environment?” This question breaks down into two questions that need to be answered.
- Is SharePoint technology supported in a virtualized environment at all?
- Is my chosen virtualization vendor’s technology supported?
The SharePoint and windows product team announced support for virtualization of SharePoint on Windows using a number of virtualization products. From a Microsoft perspective, Virtual Server 2005 and Hyper V are fully supported. Third party products, such as VMWare, are also supported via the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). This is fantastic news for the enterprises with existing investments in virtualization products, such as VMWARE ESX virtualization stack. Here are links to the official statements on Microsoft websites:
- Hardware virtualization support for SharePoint products and technologies
- Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software
- Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) (A full list of certified virtualization vendors is available here.)
