A once and done philosophy

In a past life, I wrote a paper about the importance of a "once and done" philosophy. Those who really want to start their day on the wrong foot can read it here. This concept is very important to those considering any form of virtualization technology.

What is a "Once and Done" philosophy?

In the paper I explained the concept of a "once and done" philosophy in this way:

A "Once and Done" philosophy is simply finding ways to do something once and be done with it. In the case of software products, this means being able to load a product on a machine, adjust a few simple parameters and then be up and running.

Since, organizations are intensely focused on reducing their overall IT costs; IT management is always seeking ways to reduce the overall complexity of their IT infrastructure and the costs of administering and operating that infrastructure. Reducing the time and effort it takes to install software, update that software and operate that software once it's installed can be a key component of that strategy.

How does this apply to virtualization?

If one considers the whole concept of virtualization, that is using technology to work in a logical or "virtual" environment that may differ dramattcally from the physical environment upon which it is hosted, the concept is very important. Virtual environments are always more complex than their physical conterparts. At a minimum, both the physical and virtual environments must be installed, administered, operated and updated from time to time. If the organization's IT infrastructure is based upon many different layers of virtualization, the level of complexity rises at a compounded rate.

If the IT architects who designed the environment don't work from a "once and done" perspective and build these functions into the environment, the cost structure and utility of a virtualized environment could be worse than hosting everything on a physical environment. In the end, they would have constructed a patchwork quilt of solutions that lock the company into its current configuration and may preclude the use of new technology that would dramatically reduce costs or improve performance.

Depending upon the layer of technology in question, there are quite a number of vendors who are focused on providing a workable approach that will both reduce complexity and increase the manageability and reliability of the environment.

What is your organization doing to create a "once and done" virtual environment? What tools

are you using? Do you have different tools that help in the areas of access virtualization, application virtualization, processing virtualization, network virtualization and storage virtualization or have you deployed a single management framework?