I am looking for some hardware recommendations on an upcoming virtualization project. We are a small company (80 users - 25 in site 1, 55 in site 2) currently using Windows Server 2003 - no VM servers yet. Our AD is setup where site 1 is the root domain and site 2 is a subdomain/subnet - connected by T1 and VPN for failover. The current DC's also server as file servers, print servers, AntiVirus servers. Email is in the cloud.

Additionally then in site 1 we have 3 additional member servers - one running IBM Websphere for a customer specific app, one running Infor PowerLink (no real heavy load) and another that we use for Virtual Studio apps and also runs DirSync for Exchange Online. No heavy workloads on any of these machines really. We also have an AS400 box that we run ERP/CRM software on that site 2 connects to over the WAN link.

In site 2 we also have a SQL machine that runs on Win2K server. Database files are not large less than 5 GB. Light to Medium workload on this machine.

File servers in each site store less than 500 GB data and probably won't grow to more than 1TB in the next 5 years.

I am looking to go to VMWare in both sites and virtualize all servers.

What recommendations do you have for server, storage hardware? Is it safe to virtualize all of your DC's?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.