No doubt that virtualization will provide a big challenge for network managers. However, the issues of managing virtual environments go well beyond just network management. The rapid adoption of data center virtualization, while providing the clear cost savings of server consolidation, creates a much more difficult environment for the management of performance and availability of virtualized applications and application components. Current system management tools, which require massive amounts of manual effort to solve performance problems simply cannot scale in a virtualized environment. This is especially true in a time when IT budgets are flat and labor spend already represents the great majority of the budget.

In order to reap the full ROI from virtualization, organizations must adopt a new systems management paradigm that automates much of this manual effort in a highly dynamic environment. Real time analytics solutions for performance management, that learn and adapt to the ever-changing virtual environment, proactively pinpointing the source of performance problems that affect end users and the business bottom line are now a must-have. Without real time analytics, the cost savings of server consolidation will be quickly consumed by increased labor costs for performance management.

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