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Originally Posted by Blueline  VM is great depending on what you want to do. For testing I refuse to use it as there are very slight differences between running on VMware and a straight OS, but for certain applications it is great. |
This is a little misleading. System tests(is this **** installed correctly) are independent on every system, virtual, PC, Server, Dell, HP, VMWare, VS2005, whatever.
As a former employee of MS and a current employee of EMC, and a software/computer/IT consultant in general, it's been my job to keep up with the different virtualization products.
If I'm an ******* developer who wants a Server I can break, I'd look at hooking that guy up with MS Virtual PC. If I have a lot of Devs and I'm an IT Manager/Lab Manager, I'd look at installing a VMWare Server instance. If I want to consolidate my production environment, no doubt the ESX servers are the way to go.
Taking the steps to virtualization is NOT cheap, but the costs in the long run are way worth it. For example, imagine having 5 racks instead of 20 in the data center. On top of the energy savings and DC savings, what about the capital savings? You no longer have to depreciate a 100 servers, but rather just 10. These savings might not always translate well on paper, but are no doubt a great way to keep a small staff happy.
Buying a lot of servers is for *******s who can waste money.
Citrix is something different, but pretty damned cool. I'd look into deploying a Citrix environment if I was attempting to do a VPN/Work-From-Home scenario.
-_Sf