Q&A with Jonathan Smith of Joyce Meyer Ministries
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VSM: What is JMM’s history with virtualization? Why virtualization? |
JS: In the beginning, the only usage of virtualization was in our dev/test environments with Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. Then, with the release of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 in 2006, we started considering virtualization for our production systems. With “server sprawl,” data center capacity reaching 90% utilization, as well as accelerated growth of our international offices, we looked at virtualization as a technology that could help control these physical constraints.
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VSM: What needs did JMM have that prompted a look at Hyper-V as a replacement solution? What ultimately sealed the deal? |
JS: We were dealing with more than 130 servers, and had plans to upgrade several key applications in the U.S and in the international offices. In addition, our data center utilities capacity had reached 90%. So, it was time to seriously consider virtualization.
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VSM: What were the steps to making this change? Where did you begin? |
JS: We did a “bake off” of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 and VMware ESX, with an eye on Hyper-V, which wasn’t available at the time. We deployed about 20 low-impact production servers on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 and proved the value of virtualization. However, we felt that Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 wouldn’t meet our high availability needs and VMware was just too costly, so we opted to wait for Hyper-V for U.S. production systems. However, we did make the decision to move forward with deploying Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 in our foreign offices – currently we have 15 international offices. We are now in the process of upgrading them to Hyper-V.
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VSM: Were there any unexpected hurdles during the deployment process? |
JS: The biggest challenge was application functionality and support in a virtual environment. A virtual server deployment to global offices was clearly the most cost-effective and supportable solution. One key question we asked our application vendors was “do you support a virtual environment?” The answer was generally “it will run, but we don’t support it.” With that statement we were always making the decision whether to deploy the application on a virtual or physical server.
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VSM: JMM is still using VMware in some offices - why? Have there been any issues with this multi-vendor situation? |
JS: We are using VMware at our world headquarters in Fenton, Mo. During the time we waited for Hyper-V to be released, we were able to negotiate and purchase VMware. There have been no issues running both Hyper-V and VMware. We use System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 to manage and monitor both environments from the U.S. office. As a result, for the first time, IT teams work from one management pane that supports physical and virtual IT infrastructure in the US and abroad.
