Virtualization Service Level Agreements

Anil Desai, SearchServerVirtualization.com site expert

IT reseller takeaway: Setting up virtualization SLAs present their own unique challenges. You will want to address your customers' virtual demands, define the subsequent agreements and use them to manage their virtualization needs and reduce costs. Get started with this excerpt from our sister site, SearchServerVirtualization.com.


One of the most common challenges faced by most IT organizations is defining their internal customers' requirements and delivering services based on the requirements.

Despite virtualization's new-found popularity, there are still many who are skeptical about it. This often reads to resistance and a lack of knowledge about the potential cost and management benefits of using virtual machines.

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The purpose of a Service Level Agreement is to define, prioritize, and document the real needs of an organization. All too often, IT departments tend to work in a relatively vacuum, focusing on technology. The area of virtualization is no exception; it's often much easier to create and deploy VMs (virtual machines) than it is to determine the strategic needs of the company. The problems range from poorly managing users' expectations to large costs that might not directly address the most important challenges. The goal of containing costs is the basis for a lot of virtualization decisions, so it's important to keep this in mind.

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This was first published in September 2007

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