TABLE OF CONTENTS In this chapter, we ll take a look at what the future holds. We ll discuss topics ranging from the evolution of your physical environment into a virtual one to new versions of ESX Server and other virtualization products. We ll also take a glimpse at the storage on which your virtual machines may live, and see if the future of your virtual environment is as exciting as it is today. Getting a head start on these elements of virtualization is a step you don t want to miss.
By this chapter, we hope that you have at least one ESX Server humming efficiently away with a large number of virtual machines utilizing the resources of their host optimally. Maybe you even have VirtualCenter up and running and you have a library of templates from which you can provision servers more quickly then your SLAs demand. If you have more then one ESX Server and VirtualCenter, you may have witnessed the wonder that is VMotion. Perhaps you have dabbled with the power of vmware-cmd and vmkfstools and even created some basic scripts to manage and control your virtual machines. If so, you have taken the first steps toward virtual nirvana.
The further you move down the path of virtualization, the greater the rewards. Buzzwords like ROI and TCO will actually become meaningful as the tangible costs of running your server environment decrease while performance, stability, flexibility, and availability all increase.
Back in April 2004,...
