Professional Xen® Virtualization

Chapter 10. Using Xen in the Data Center

As in all technologies, experimentation and deployment are very different things. Experimentation is an obvious first step in examining and evaluating any new technology. Many technologies are interesting for their own sake, and can provide insights into new ways of using hardware and software, and into the business processes that depend on them. Regardless of whether any specific technology is eventually adopted, research into new technologies is an important investment that most successful businesses understand. Even if there is no immediate business benefit from a specific experimental technology, keeping up with the technology curve poises you to successfully understand, implement, and incorporate technologies that can increase productivity, performance, and profitability.

Deploying a new technology as a part of your enterprise infrastructure introduces the same reliability and availability requirements that you have for any other technology that you currently depend on. However, it also introduces new support, maintenance, and education requirements for IT staff to manage and support the day-to-day use of the new technology, as well as the creation, incorporation, and adoption of new IT processes across your enterprise for longer-term issues such as disaster and recovery planning.

This chapter highlights the most important planning and process issues related to adopting Xen as a core part of your enterprise infrastructure. If virtualization ...