As virtualization soars in the fashion that successful ideas often do – like flying birds, several myths and legends have already risen to meet the masses rushing to adopt the latest and greatest in virtual computing power. Here is a handful of each for the buffs to tackle.

MYTHS OR LEGENDS?

1. Pricing is out of whack with what is supplied. There is competition across the field, which brings with it a diversity of pricing. A clear cut leader exists in the space in the form of VMware, whose pricing some consider to be expensive. However, in the total cost analysis, most companies find the pricing of virtualization compelling. The ability to almost endlessly partition saves money over the expense of purchasing new hardware to store data.

2. Security isn’t what it used to be. With virtualization offering up partitions on the same server, it seems that hacker access is possible between varied security clearances in the same virtual home. However, any IT pro knows to install a firewall between clearance levels, and keep all patches promptly updated, so those probable holes are closed to those with malicious intent.

3. It’s hard to learn this new virtualization stuff. Utilizing familiar standards, virtualization is as simple to learn as any new program. Fortunately, standards of Windows, Linux, and Unix are relatively similar in either the physical or the virtual world.

The new steps to access data stored virtually can be mastered and become routine within a week – a week largely occupied by your other typical job duties.

4. Virtual machines have an extended recovery time in the event of failure. It’s true that with all of your organization’s data in one virtual area, a practically unlimited number of machines suddenly acting as sheep without a herder is troublesome. Fortunately, fast acting restore ‘buttons’ have been created which can be used when necessary to bring the system back to operational status in the event of a system-wide issue.

Face-to-face time with IT personnel is thus limited. While the restoration isn’t instantaneous, neither is an IT based repair job.

5. Sprawl is unavoidable. That’s like saying a messy closet is necessary for each teenager on the planet. It’s simply a function of the approach employed. If the virtualization system is designed well at the outset – that is, the data is organized before it ever reaches the virtual system, sprawl can be sidestepped. If the data is a complete mess on the way in, it will be sloppy inside the virtual container too.

Here’s a classic case where pre-planning and organization will save untold future headaches.

6. Performance degradation is a fact of life for virtualization enabled data retrieval. Each piece of software has a performance affect upon the entire server in a virtual system, so some performance issues can appear. ‘Can’ is a far cry from ‘will,’ however. Also, with slow-running bloatware the norm on many physical machines, it’s hard to say that a non-virtual machine would actually run faster.

There they are; a half dozen overblown myths and legends to ponder. You can decide whether the myths should be replaced by the legends.