The argument over how to best manage virtualization continues to rage as startup vendors seek to challenge the incumbents of the systems management world.

In general, startup companies that specialize in virtualization management argue that the nuances and complexity of virtualization require a product offering from a vendor that is totally focused on virtual machine management.

On the opposite side of the debate are companies such as Perfman, which this week is rolling out extensions to its management tools for both virtual and physical server environments.

The new offering from Perfman, which adds tools to plan your virtual machine deployment and report on the number of virtual machines in your environment, extends Perfman's argument that there is no need for specialized tools that require IT organizations to work with additional vendors when it comes to virtual machine management.

The crux of the Perfman argument is centered around that simple fact that no IT organization is going to use virtual machines on every server. The reason for that is that not all applications run equally well on virtual machines. That means that it is more than like that an IT organization is going to, for example, run a database on a physical server while relying on servers running virtual machines to save money on file server hardware.

Perfman also argues that in order to truly understand what is happening in the virtual world, you have to be able to understand the issues affecting the underlying physical hardware. As such, Perfman takes pains to make sure that it provides metrics on each guest operating system running on top of every virtual machine.

No matter how important you think virtualization is going to be, physical and virtual servers are going to running side by side together for years to come. Another reality is that most IT organizations can not afford to have dedicated virtual machine management specialists on staff.

So when it comes right down to it, the reality of the day is that most IT organizations simply can't afford to not have a systems management approach that spans both physical and virtual machines.