Virtualisation: just a lot of extra software licences?

[J65nko]

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11...tion_licences/

A colleague of mine recently remarked that x86 virtualisation makes no sense to any organisation that is cost conscious.

I am an early adopter of virtualisation and wanted to know what he meant.

“When using virtualisation, you are paying for far more software licences than you would if you were to take the time to implement everything on one physical box," he explained.

[jggimi]

There are positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses, to ANY virtualization implementation. Software licensing may, or may not, be a consideration; yet even if it is a component to weigh for a decision, it is only one of many.

Unfortunately, after discounting this one poorly justified negative, the cited article only accentuates perceived advantages, such as isolation of poorly written applications. That isn't always the case. More importantly, costs and risks must both be carefully weighed. Benefits must be balanced with risks, and mitigations put in place where possible.

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Disclaimer: I spent a good portion of my IT career managing, consulting, and then selling very large scale virtualization solutions.