Consolidation benefits and risks
Virtualization reduces physical server count but concentrates risk on hypervisor hosts. HA clusters and performant shared storage become mandatory for critical workloads.
Choosing a hypervisor
VMware vSphere remains common in enterprise with a mature ecosystem. Proxmox appeals for cost-sensitive environments with integrated clustering and backup options. Choice depends on team skills and backup/DR integration.
VM backup
Every VM should be on an application-consistent backup schedule. Veeam and similar tools support granular file or full VM restore to a DR site.
