Hardware agnosticism is one of the best benefits. I love ESXi dearly. Consider this: 2x redundant DNS servers, 2x redundant mail servers, 2x redundant file servers.... A decent DMZ buildout for a small office. With ESXi you can do that in 2U of rack space and have complete physical redundancy. Without, you need 6 boxes, several of which will be underutilized. Balanced properly, you can more efficiently use resources, EG a RAM hungry service, an I/O thrasher, and a CPU cruncher can all play nicely together. Plus, cloning a box is a simple operation taking very little effort. SHAMELESS PLUG(combined with SHAMELESS PUN!): I wrote an article on my blog about this a few weeks back. It's here: http://www.bensbrowning.com/2008/12/06/benefits-of-virtualization/ ~Ben Stephen wrote: > I was actually helping someone plan a business model on this idea, you > have a server in place as part of a paid IT contract it would cover a > loaner server fro just this scenario so your data could be move > imported and running as is in a minimal amount of timew while the > ahrdware as checked diagnosed and brought back up online.. > > On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:42 PM, Stephen wrote: >> My sell on it is VMware ESXi will allow you to load your dead server >> on any other machine running ESXi wich is free so your dead server can >> be up and running in 15-20 min instead of 2-4 days depending on how >> long it takes to get failed hardware working again. >> >> i sold a number fo them that way very easily >> >> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 11:32 PM, Bryan O'Neal >> wrote: >>> I am a huge fan of VMware! I use it often, but outside my fathers >>> engineering company I can not seem to convince many small businesses to use >>> it. However, I honestly believe virtualization is on of the greatest things >>> I have seen develop over the last 10 years and I am exited to see where the >>> next ten will lead us. >>> ________________________________ >>> From: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >>> [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of JD >>> Austin >>> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:11 PM >> -- >> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from >> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. >> >> Stephen >> > > > -- Ben Browning Linux Systems Architect and Administrator http://www.bensbrowning.com/