Virtual v’s Physical Appliances – 4 Compelling Reasons for Change
Ease of Evaluation and Testing - part III
At the completion of an evaluation, it is often essential to retain the test data or evaluation data for some period of time until decisions have been made by other teams or by senior management. In the normal case, this requires that the sample appliance sit idle until such time as it is free to be reinstalled and redeployed. In some cases, the manufacturer will request the return of the appliance before even the evaluator has had time to complete the evaluation. In the case of virtual appliances, old evaluation and test images can be saved to tape or other backup medium for future analysis or further testing, thus freeing up the test system for other tests. Similarly, the test system can be easily restored to a pristine state by the application of a new image, thus preventing cross-contamination of tests.
