vCenter Server features - more notes and things to read

VM templates
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vc_2_templates_usage_best_practices_wp.pdf
VM customization 
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50%2FGUID-2481FF43-8C73-41FE-9BA0-D2676E5BC781.html  http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50%2FGUID-1D9EFBFA-A8CD-4091-90A9-7151B4724FB3.html
rapid provisioning and deployment
role-based access controls
http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/vmware-access-control-101-roles-and-permissions http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-security-guide.pdf
fine-grained resource allocation controls
vSphere vMotion
https://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/vmotion.html#glance
vSphere distributed resource scheduler
https://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/drs-dpm.html
vSphere High Availability
https://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/high-availability.html
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-High-Availability-DS-EN.pdf
vSphere Fault Tolerance
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-Fault-Tolerance-FT-DS-EN.pdf
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003212
Host Profiles
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-Host-Profiles-Tech-Overview.pdf
Storage I/O control
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-vSphere41-SIOC.pdf http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/03/debunking-storage-io-control-myths.html
vSphere Distributed Switches
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-vNetwork-Distributed-Switch-DS-EN.pdf http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010555
Network I/O Control
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW_Netioc_BestPractices.pdf
vSphere Storage DRS
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsphere-storage-drs-interoperability.pdf