Cost of VMware DataCenter

[AlexBakman]

Hi everybody

I am in need of data to understand how much money companies have invested in Vmware Data Centers. I would like to know that it typically costs for a small, medium size and large companies to set up a Vmware data center. By total cost I mean server hardware, storage, vmware licening, consulting, operational costs, etc

Please point me to where I can find the data please

thanks

Alex

[beyondvm]

Oh man, this is a question with an extreemly vast number of answers. Can you narrow down the business type or size? Number of servers to virtualize? Resource requirements?

VMware might have some statistics but other than that its a really hard question to answer.

---

If you found any of my comments helpful please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

www.beyondvm.com

[malaysiavm]

I don't think we can provide you an accurate answer here, but you do need to consider couple of important point here.

1. Physical Servers specification with right memory, I/O Module included

2. Layer 2 networking and SAN storage consideration. Can be on FC, ISCSI or NAS

3. VMware Licenses are tie to physical CPU sockets

4. The number of host will determine the vCenter package you need to purchase

5. Existing datacenter LAN capacity will require for consideration

6. Security

7. Number of Virtual machines in your deployment

8. Storage specification requirement

There are definitely more than the items here. Just some reference point for you to kick start.

Craig

vExpert 2009

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[AlexBakman]

I realized I am asking a broad question, so to narrow it down how about 3 environment

1. Small. 10 ESX hosts. How much do people typically spend here??

2. Medium 50 ESX hosts ???

3. Large120 ESX Hosts ??

thanks

[beyondvm]

What types of VMs are you talking about here? 10 Hosts could virtualize anywhere from 10 to ~400 VMs or even more, depending on how many CPUs and how much memory you get in each host. As for hosts, the type depends on how much money you want to spend, you could get 10 DL585s with (4) 6 core CPU and 256GB ram and those probably cost almost 60k each, or you could get 10 DL360s with dual quad core and only 16gb of ram and those would probably only cost around 5 or 7k. Each of these would require different VMware licensing as well, the first being the most expensive obviously. There really are an infinite number of combinations of hardware and software that are possible, that is why no one can really give you statistics. What are you trying to gather these statistics for, perhaps if we knew the end goal we could help with that.

---

If you found any of my comments helpful please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

www.beyondvm.com

[AlexBakman]

sure I recongnize the wide disparity of hardware and cost associated with it. My end goal is to figure how much money an average small. memdium and large company has spent on Vmware implementation. It would also be helpful to further underatand in that spend, what was the #1, #2 and #3 expense item in terms of size. Does this make it more clear? Can you help?

[amvmware]

As has already been stated this is very open.

But lets give it a go.

Option 1 - small (10VM's)

Assume minimum of 2 x ESXI hosts. HP MSA iSCSI solution for shared storage - assume vMotion and HA required. Ball park costs including training and consultancy £30-40K.

Option 2 - medium (50 vm's)

Assume VMware capacity planner performed, 5 x esxi hosts, HP EVA solution for shared storage - assume vMotion, HA and DRS required. Ball park costs including training and consultancy £60-80K

Option 3 - large (120 VM's)

Assume VMware capacity planner performed, 10 x ESXi hosts, HP EVA solution for shared storage, assume, vmotion, ha, drs, FT required, Ball park costs incluidng training and consultancy £100-150K

But this does not include backup solution, the amount of storage required, any site to site BC\DR requirements, additional networking requirements such as physical switches.. It would nto be possible to understand your on-going costs - how your business addresses capex and opex costs is unique to you as a business.

My advice would be to talk to a VMware partner who will be able to give you more accurate costs for your requirements than this forum can.

Don't forget to leave points for helpful/correct posts.

[AlexBakman]

This is VERY helpful. How about on Storage costs. Could you take a stab at the 3 scenarious?

thank you again

Alex

[ephillipsme]

For a small scale deployment say 3 or 4 hosts and a small entry level SAN such as a HP MSA the storage would be dependant on total VM storage and the like but easily a MSA 2000 with FC connection and 2 8 Port FC switch would run $25 k for say 2 TB of storage. The MSA has no features other then a straight FC or iSCSI target and presentation of LUNs.

For larger environments or were DR is involve EMC clarions or HP EVA with larger capacity and highly through put would be required. And for Data center replication you could add array based replication. All these add tot the cost obviously, But getting started at this level would run you $60-70k for a starting point.

~E

[amvmware]

In the costs i have proposed the SAN does make up the majority of the costs - but you should add an additional 25% to each option to be on the safe side.

I would still recommend talking to a local VMWare consultancy as they should be able to talk through your options and things you may not have considered but are important such as options for resilience and redundancy and backup solutions.

If you are in the UK then my employer can assist.

Don't forget to leave points for helpful/correct posts.

[AlexBakman]

So it is fair to say that in any size of VMware implementation storage cost is the largest expense?

[AlexBakman]

What would you expect to pay for an EMC Clarion? What's the staring confif and real street price?

[amvmware]

Correct and in my experience it is the one area customers tend to underestimate more than anything else. Customers assume that consolidatiing upto 120 physical servers onto a virtualisation platform is all about how to P2V and making sure there is enough processing and memory - yes these are important, but a storage solution that can deliver the correct IO is as important or the whole virtual environment can under perform.

Cost of an EMC clariion - i am not a salesperson so unfortuately i can't help with that.

Don't forget to leave points for helpful/correct posts.