This whitepaper first discusses what to look for in a virtualization protection solution and then considers the merits of a separate solution for protecting one’s virtual environment, compared with using a unified solution that offers comparable virtualization protection capabilities. Near the back of this document is a guide to assessing the total cost of ownership for separate vs. unified solutions for protecting the virtual components of a modern infrastructure. This paper is being released in tandem with an ESG Lab Report that assesses Symantec Backup Exec 2012 and its virtualization protection technologies.