Issue link: https://insights.oneneck.com/i/1437687
16 Evaluation Criteria Hypervisors are complex pieces of software that are comprised of hundreds of possible features. Basic features include resource scheduling, high availability, virtual networks, and multiple OS compatibility. These are now commodity features that are readily available in all of the hypervisor alternatives discussed above. Beyond this, organizations should focus on the value each alternative offers the business and how it might change or improve operations. A good place to begin is to look at the design phase for the different hypervisor alternatives. Use the design requirements for a recent project or an upcoming one as the solution that you would be architecting for. Develop an understanding of the amount of effort to design a solution for the selected project. Note if this phase consumes days or weeks of effort to design the hypervisor layer of the solution due to the complexity of design choices. Ideally the hypervisor should deliver all the feature and functionality required, while simplifying the design phase down to a few clear, simple choices. Next be sure to understand what the deployment effort looks like. Based on the proposed design selected in your evaluation, identify the effort required to deploy the solution and how this differs, if at all, from a basic deployment. Ideally just like the design phase, the deployment phase should require minimal input from the engineer and be highly automated. Deploying a new cluster is not something that should require days to weeks of effort. And finally taking a close look at the operations side of a hypervisor will help understand any difference from your current efforts. Patching and upgrading a hypervisor has historically been one of the larger operational efforts. Do any of the hypervisor alternatives offer any advantages around simplifying this process in both terms of effort and reliability of upgrades? Apart from upgrades, how does the daily management of virtual machines look? Can this be accomplished from a single simple interface?