virtualization manager survey: features, competitors, roi

Virtualization ManagerFeatures, Competitive, and ROI Survey

August 2014

© 2014 SOLARWINDS WORLDWIDE, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Overview

» The survey was done to capture how existing Virtualization Manager (VMAN) customers are using the product

» Specific questions about the product, features, ROI, why they chose SolarWinds, their experience with other virtualization management tools, and so on were the focus areas of this survey

» The survey was rolled out to all existing Virtualization Manager customers in North America and the findings are based on answers from 136 respondents

VMAN SURVEY. AUGUST 2014.1

Survey respondents save on average $70,000/year and experience over 40% fewer hours of downtime after deploying VMAN

Before VMAN After VMAN Annual Savings – Year 1

Time Saved

• Staff• VM Sprawl• Troubleshooting

3 FTEs Managing 216 VMs8.5 hours/month6.5 hours/month

2 FTEs Managing 244 VMs2.5 hours/month3 hours/month

1 FTE @ $65,000

Downtime 3.5 hours/month 2 hours/month 18 hours

Resources Saved (Annual)

• CPU• Memory• Storage

11 CPUs15 GB23 GB

Hardware cost savings: $6000

Total VMs Managed 216 VMs 244 VMs

Virtualization Manager Average Software Cost $5,995 ($5,995)

Total Savings $65k+ hardware cost of $6,000 – (Average software cost of $5,995)Plus revenue or efficiency benefits of reduced downtime


Results – Comparing Smaller and Larger Environments

Smaller Environments (< 500 VMs) Larger Environments (> 500 VMs) Annual Savings – Year 1

Time Saved

• Staff

• VM Sprawl

• Troubleshooting

2 FTEs Managing 117 VMs/1 FTE Managing 130 VMs (before/after VMAN)6.3 & 2.1 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

4.6 & 2.3 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

3 FTEs Managing 295 VMs/2 FTE Managing 333 VMs (before/after VMAN)7.3 & 2.6 hours/month (before/after VMAN)5.3 &3.4 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

1 FTE @ $65,000 for both environments

Downtime 2.3 & 1.3 hours/month (before/after VMAN) 3.2 & 1.8 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

12 hours and 17 hours for smaller and larger environments



8 CPUs12 GB17 GB

9 CPUs17 GB26 GB

Hardware cost savings: $6000 for smaller environments and $6500 for larger environments

Total VMs Managed 117 & 130 VMs (before/after VMAN) 295 & 333 VMs (before/after VMAN)

Virtualization Manager Average Software Cost

$5,995 $10,995

Total Savings $65k + hardware cost of $6,000 –software cost of $5,995 (smaller environments)$65k + hardware cost of $6,500 –software cost of $10,995 (largerenvironments)Plus revenue or efficiency benefits of reduced downtimeVMAN SURVEY. AUGUST 2014.

3

Results – Comparing Advanced & Basic Users

Expert/Advanced Users Use When Needed/Infrequent Users Annual Savings – Year 1

Time Saved

• Staff

• VM Sprawl

• Troubleshooting

2 FTEs Managing 180 VMs/1 FTE Managing 210 VMs (before/after VMAN)6.4 & 1.7 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

5 & 2.3 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

2 FTEs Managing 160 VMs/1 FTE Managing 170 VMs (before/after VMAN)6.4 & 2.1 hours/month (before/after VMAN)5 & 2.9 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

1 FTE @ $65,000 for both user groups

Downtime 2.5 & 1.4 hours/month (before/after VMAN) 2.5 & 1.8 hours/month (before/after VMAN)

13.2 hours and 8.1 hours for experts and infrequent user groups



12 CPUs16 GB18 GB

6 CPUs12 GB18 GB

Hardware cost savings: $6000 for expert users and $5000 for infrequent users

Total VMs Managed 180 & 210 VMs (before/after VMAN) 160 & 170 VMs (before/after VMAN)

Virtualization Manager Average Software Cost

$10,995 $5,995

Total Savings $65k + hardware cost of $6,000 –software cost of $10,995 (expert users)$65k + hardware cost of $5,000 –software cost of $5,995 (infrequent users)Plus revenue or efficiency benefits of reduced downtime


7% sys admins are extensive/expert users. 19% sys admins are infrequent/not fully deployed users. Out of all the virtual admins, only 21% of them are expert users/use VMAN extensively.

61%

50%

27%25% 24%

System Administrator Admin for Virtual Environment IT Generalist Capacity Planner Other

Current Role

Q1: What is your current role in your organization? • Network Engineer• IT Director• Executive• IT Ops Manager• VP of IT• Desktop Support• Network Manager• Engineering Architect• IT Security Manager• Network Analyst• Storage Admin• System Architect• Operations Manager


42% of the users use VMAN only on need basis. Out of which 53% are virtual admins, 28% are capacity planners, 67% are sys admins, and 32% are IT generalists. Out of the 30% frequent/advanced users, 54% are virtual admins, 41% & are capacity planners, 59% are sys admins, and 32% are IT generalists.

42%

30%

10%

10%

8%

Level of Expertise

Use when Needed/ Use Basic Out of the Box Capabilties Use Frequently/Advanced User

Infrequent/Not Fully Deployed Haven't Deployed/Don't Use It

Use Extensively/Expert User

Q2: What best describes your level of expertise with SolarWinds Virtualization Manager?


On an average every admin monitors at least 315 VMs using VMAN.

32%

29%

18%

15%

7%

Less than 100 VMs 101 - 250 VMs 251 - 500 VMs 501 - 1000 VMs Greater than 1000 VMs

# of VMs

Q3: How many VMs do you monitor using Virtualization Manager?


53% of all respondents have not spent a single dollar after purchasing VMAN. 64% extensive/expert users have not spent a single dollar after purchase in the last 12 months.

53%

26%

9% 9%

2% 1% 1% 0%

$0 $1 - $5,000 $5,001 - $15,000 $30,000 - $100,000 $15,001 - $30,000 $100,001 - $200,000 Greater than$500,000

$200,001 - $500,000

Software cost for VMAN

Q4: Excluding the software cost for VMAN, how much have you spent in the last 12 months on training (including class fees, travel expenses), consulting (installation/upgrade/customization) and other services related to VMAN?


12% admins who added 51-100 VMs are extensive/expert users. 83% admins who added over 250 VMs also monitor over 1000 VMs using VMAN and they are also expert/frequent users. On an average, every admin has added at least 80 VMs to their environment in the last 12 months.

54%

31%

10%

4%

# of VMs Added

Less than 50 VMs 51 - 100 VMs 101 - 250 VMs Greater than 250 VMS

Q5: How many VMs have you added in the last 12 months to your environment?


On an average, all respondents have added around 38 vCPUs and 7 TB of memory over the past 12 months.

35%

30%

14%

11% 10%

Less than 24vCPUs

25 - 48 vCPUs 0 Greater than 96vCPUs

49 - 96 vCPUs

Number of processors (vCPUs) added

55%

16% 16%

9%

4%

1 - 5 TB 0 6 - 10 TB 11 - 50 TB Greater than 50TB

Memory in TB

Q6: What is the quantity of resources (processor & memory) added to your virtual environment over the past 12 months?


64% admins who buy new resources without analyzing have added 1-5 TB memory and 36% added less than 24 vCPUs in the past 12 months. Among those who selected both combinations, 41% added 1-5 TB of memory and 60% added less than 24 vCPUs in the last 12 months.

35%

14%

57%

6%

Optimize and right-size existingresources using Virtualization Manager

Buy new resources without analyzingopportunity for reallocation

Combination of the previous choices Other

Resource Contraints

• Use other tools to analyze resources

• Not planned at the time• Optimize & reduce

waste• Reallocate manually, but

new resources when that runs out

• Educated guess• I do not use the

hardware/software• We don’t have

constraints

Q7: What do you do when you have resource constraints in your virtual environment?


Overall VMAN helps every admin save at least 11 CPUs, 15 GB memory, and 23 GB storage annually.

43%

25%

20%

8%

3%

1 - 10 CPUs 0 11 - 25CPUs

Greaterthan 50

CPUs

26 - 50CPUs

CPUs

23% 23%22%

19%

12%

0 Less than 5GB

5 - 20 GB Greaterthan 50 GB

21 - 50 GB

Memory

28%27%

16% 16%

12%

Greaterthan 50 GB

0 Less than10 GB

11 - 25 GB 26 - 50 GB

Storage

Q8: What is the approximate hardware resources saved annually using Virtualization Manager?


41% of those with 101-250 VMs manually search for dormant VMs. 35% of those with 101-250 VMs do not do any analysis. They just add new resources as constraints pop up.

61%

36%

12%

5%

Manually search for dormant VMs orover used VMs

We did not do any analysis. We just addnew resources as constraints pop up

Purchased Virtualization Manager assoon as we moved to virtual

environment

Other

Optimize VM Sprawl

• I do not use this hardware/software

• We use vCenter toolsalso

• Other SolarWinds products and VM tools

• We don’t optimize

Q9: Before purchasing Virtualization Manager, how did you optimize virtual resources/manage VM sprawl?


On an average, every admin has spent around 8.5 hours every month to do VM sprawl analysis before buying VMAN, and now they spend only 2.5 hours per month after buying VMAN.

21% 17%26% 23%

12%

68%

21%8%

2%

1 - 5 hours 0 hours 6 - 10 hours 11 - 20 hours Greater than 20 hours

Before After

Q10: How long did it take to do VM sprawl analysis per month before and after purchasing Virtualization Manager?


On an average, every admin took 6.5 hours every month to troubleshoot virtualization performance issues before VMAN, and now it only takes 3 hours after deploying VMAN.

19%9%

37%27%

7%

67%

13%

12%

7%

Less than 3 hours 0 hours 3 - 7 hours 7 - 15 hours Greater than 15 hours

Before After

Q11: How long did it take to troubleshoot virtualization performance issues per month before and after purchasing Virtualization Manager?


On an average, all admins managed around 216 VMs with almost 3 FTEs before deploying VMAN and after deploying VMAN they monitor around 244 VMs with 2 FTEs.

40% 39%

13%6%

39%35%

15%

8%

2%

101 - 250 VMs Less than 100VMs

251 - 500 VMs 501 - 1000 VMs Greater than1000 VMs

Before After

41% 38%

12%6% 2%

52%

35%

8%

3%

1 2 - 3 4 - 5 5 - 10 Greater than 10

Before After

Q12: What is the total number of VMs managed per admin (VMs/Full Time Equivalents (FTE) – if a person only spends part oftheir time managing the VM environment, estimate as a percent of their total time) before and after purchasing VMAN?


On an average, every admin used to face 3.5 hours of downtime every month due to VM performance and configuration changes. Now after deploying VMAN, they face only 2 hours of downtime every month.

41%31%

16%7% 4%

58%

36%

4%

Less than 3 hours 0 hours 3 - 7 hours 7 - 15 hours Greater than 15 hours

Before After

Q13: How many hours of downtime did you experience per month due to VM performance and configuration issues? Both before and after purchasing Virtualization Manager?


31% customers who rated performance alerts as good or excellent are all frequent/advanced users of VMAN. 29% customers who rated capacity planning as good or excellent are also frequent/advanced users of VMAN. For all other features where customersrated good excellent, 34% are frequent/advanced users, 2% are extensive/expert users, 48% use when needed/use out-of-the-box capabilities, 4% say they don’t use often/infrequent users, and 7% haven’t deployed/don’t use VMAN.

31% 29% 32% 35%25%

39%22% 23% 26%

59% 58% 50% 43%52%

45%

56% 49%54%

10% 13% 18% 21% 17%15% 20% 25% 17%

6%

VMAN Features

Excellent Good Average Poor

Q14: How do you rate the following Virtualization Manager features?


47% virtual admins, 25% capacity planners, 63% sys admins, and 35% IT generalists believe VMAN improved their resource utilization and helped with their business growth. On an average 34% of all these admins who believe VMAN helped towards their business growth have 101-250 VMs they monitor using VMAN.

78%

22%

Business Growth due to Resource Utilization

Yes No

Q15: Do you believe Virtualization Manager has improved your resource utilization and in-turn helped in your business growth?


31% admins manage 5-10 alerts raised by VMAN and 100% of them have rated performance alerts as either good or excellent. On an average, every admin is alerted to at least 9 performance issues in VMAN that they take an action on every month.

43%

31%

12% 11%

3%1%

Less than 5 5 - 10 11 - 25 0 Greater than 50 26 - 50

Manage Alerts

Q16: How many performance issues are alerted in Virtualization Manager do you take an action on every month?


78% admins rated configuration changes as an excellent or good feature. On an average, every admin takes at least 1 hour every month to determine host and VM configuration changes using VMAN.

44%

33%

19%

4%

0%

Less than 30 minutes 30 minutes to 1 hour 1 - 3 hours Greater than 5 hours 3 - 5 hours

VM Config Changes

Q17: How long does it take to determine host and VM configuration changes every month using Virtualization Manager?


52% virtual admins, 30% capacity planners, and 69% sys admins leverage VMAN and SAM integration. 39% virtual admins, 19% capacity planners, and 68% sys admins leverage VMAN and STM integration. 48% virtual admins, 25% capacity planners, and 68% sys admins leverage VMAN and NTM integration.

76%

64%

32%

Virtualization Manager & Network PerformanceMonitor

Virtualization Manager & Server & Application Monitor Virtualization Manager & Storage Manager

Product Integration

Q18: Do you leverage any of the product integration capabilities?


38% admins who said no, currently monitor 101 – 250 VMs using VMAN. Out of the 38%, 57% admins use VMAN only when it is needed/use basic out of the box capabilities. 50% of virtual admins said they haven’t used another virtualization management tool prior to VMAN.

20%

80%

Yes No

Virtualization Management Tool Prior to VMAN

• 63% VMware vCenterOperations Manager

• 32% Veeam One• 21% Dell Foglight• 16% WhatsupGold

WhatsVirtual• 5% VM Turbo• 5% Other (Hyper-9)• 0% HP Virtualization

Manager

Q19: Did you use another automated virtualization management software prior to Virtualization Manager?


90% of the admins who said the previous tool didn’t integrate with other products own VMAN and NPM, 50% own VMAN and SAM, and 50% own VMAN and STM together.

47%

32%

26%

21%

16%

5%

Previous tool didn'tintegrate with other

products/didn't provideend-to-end visibility

Previous tool was harder touse/install/configure

Previous tool was moreexpensive

Previous tool didn't have afeature/capability I needed

Previous tool didn't haveVM sprawl capabilities

Previous tools didn't havecapacity & right-sizing

capabilities

Reasons for Moving to VMAN

Q20: Why did you switch from your previous tool to Virtualization Manager? Can you quantify the benefit you got?


Every admin has saved around 4.2 hours per month on performance troubleshooting and managing configuration when compared to the previous tool.

37%

32%

16%

11%

5%

1 - 3 hours 5 - 10 hours Less than 1 hour 3 - 5 hours Greater than 10 hours

Time Saved using VMAN for Performance Troubleshooting

Q21: Considering performance troubleshooting and managing configuration, how many hours has Virtualization Manager helpsave when compared to the previous tool every month?


Are there other reasons why you moved to Virtualization Manager from your previous virtualization tool?

» We’re testing both, unfortunately I’ve not gotten much support for either.

» We still use vCOPS, along with VMAN. VMAN was bundled in with our SolarWinds purchase just to see if we liked it. It's nice, but we've never seen enough reason to move from vCOPS to VMAN. It may be bias, as our virtualization team are all VCPs, and huge VMware fanboys.

» NPM & NTA products

» Management bought it

» Different job and it was already purchased

» You bought it (Hyper-9)

» Value & support

» No reason


SolarWinds Virtualization Manager

Manage your virtual environment with Virtualization Manager. Experience the free and fully functional 30 day trial.


http://www.solarwinds.com/virtualization-manager.aspx?CMP=OTC-TAD-SS-VMAN_Survey_Aug_2014-VM-POP-Slide_27

virtualization manager survey: features, competitors, roi

Technology