Virtualizing Servers and Storage Across the Enterprise
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Read this white paper featuring VMware and LeftHand to learn about the true costs of storage and server sprawl, proven approaches to virtualization, and methods to maximize ROI using virtual machines on iSCSI SANs.
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I can imagine the mass deployment of virtualized storage controllers. The heyday of RAID controllers is coming to an end. It has me thinking about the mass consumption of virtualization, which leads me to another thought: the mass deployment of embedded virtualized processes.
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Continuing the thread on commoditization of scalable server software, the third installment. Yesterday, Matt Tucker from the OpenFire community, said: "I'm not sure that S3 magically kills off the scaling priests. It certainly makes it easy to turn on more storage resources, but writing an application to scale efficiently across multiple virtual machines is no easy task." To which I responded... It won't make scaling obsolete, but what it does do is commodify it. Right now I can't buy a Jabber server that scales without also hiring someone who will scale it for me. But in a few years I should be able to buy a Jabber server that, when it needs more CPUs, just asks for them all transparently to the user, the same way my word processor asks the OS for more memory today. I remember word processors that didn't do memory management, you got a 64K buffer and that's it. One document. When you filled it up, you started another. Technology will go forward and scaling won't be a black art, it'll be something built into the software you license.
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(Source: 3PAR) Here's an information-packed white paper from TheInfoPro (TIP) that delivers findings from one-on-one interviews with Fortune 1000 storage professionals. The paper explains how the deployment of tiered storage has driven the need for data migration in Fortune 1000 companies, and why those enterprises are now looking for more mature storage solutions that minimize complexity while harnessing the full value of tiered storage. It's must-read research for IT strategists who are looking to meet their business drivers for low-cost storage and high availability.
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Hitachi Data Systems on Tuesday announced a new enterprise storage lineup with new features such as a virtualization that allows customers to manage up to 32 Petabytes (PB) of internal and external storage.
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(InfoWorld) - Like other adopters of server virtualization, Purdue University was concerned that its datacenter would hit the wall, exceeding physical space, power, and cooling limits. The use of EMC VMware let it combine 140 physical servers into three Hewlett-Packard DL-585 servers, a 40:1 compression ratio, says Mike Rubesch, director of IT infrastructure systems. "It helps postpone the inevitable," he adds. But the first servers chosen had very low utilization -- around 5 percent -- so the 40:1 rate is not sustainable. Over time, Rubesch expects the ratio to be 6:1, taking into account such servers as e-mail, database, and telephony that cannot be virtualized. That utilization rate will still reduce overall power usage to 16 percent of what it had been and physical space needs to a tenth, as the use of blade servers plus virtualization greatly reduces the physical footprint. Facilities costs should fall by $75,000 per year and hardware costs by $250,000 per year, he says. But organizations considering the use of virtualization need to be careful calculating costs, Rubesch cautions. If you have fewer than 10 virtual server instances running on a physical VMware server, virtualization becomes "extraordinarily expensive," he says. IT managers must also be careful not to factor in too much savings for the operating systems and applications running in virtual machines, Rubesch says. Many IT managers count on being able to run multiple instances of an OS or an app on one CPU, paying for just one license, because most enterprise apps are licensed on a per-CPU basis. But vendors are starting to charge per instance, not per CPU. For example, BEA now charges per instance rather than per CPU for its WebLogic server, and Microsoft Windows Server Enterprise Edition's license allows use on one physical server and as many as four VMs on that server. As virtualization grows more popular, you can expect the licensing savings to evaporate, so the investment should be based on savings elsewhere, such as in hardware and facilities efficiencies, Rubesch says. The use of VMs also increases your risk, because "you can put a lot of eggs in one basket," Rubesch says. But because you've reduced the number of points of failure, IT staff has more capability to focus on those critical areas, he notes. Rubesch is building sufficient capacity so that no single server is fully utilized, providing space for EMC's VMotion software to move VMs if a physical server fails. He's also keeping a spare physical server ready to go if needed. Using virtualization also incurs a high up-front cost. "The benefits aren't immediate," Rubesch says. A big reason is that to use the EMC VMotion utility to move server instances to other physical servers for better load-balancing or failover requires that all the hardware use the same CPU family, requiring a big hardware cost at each refresh cycle. "You need to sell that concept a little bit," he says dryly. Beyond the hardware costs, the use of virtualization makes the server environment more complicated, as "servers" can reside anywhere and change where they reside over time. As a result, "you need more skills," Rubesch says. For example, although a good Windows administrator will easily adapt to running virtualized Windows servers, you still need a dedicated person to handle such items as dynamic allocation and failover, he says. Of course, you can also use virtualization to simplify your environment, Rubesch notes, such as having standard server images that ensure consistency -- ending the nightmare of navigating the peculiarities specific to each hand-deployed physical server. "It's a lot simpler with VMs to have them nearly identical." Despite the caveats on understanding actual savings and the increased up-front costs, Rubesch is a big fan of server virtualization: "You get real benefit from it -- as long as you plan ahead." Virtualization special report Case study: Credit Suisse Case study: Nationwide Insurance Case study: Stonebridge Bank Case study: Transplace
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3.0 already? Better toss the 2.0 rubbish Virtualization has become somewhat of a Wild West for the data center market, promising streets paved with gold for IT groups - and endless riches for the vendors hawking this new-age server slicing technology.â¦
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Although storage virtualization technology is fairly new, it's quickly gaining traction in the enterprise. In 2006, 20% of 1,017 companies surveyed by Forrester Research had adopted storage virtualization. By 2009, 50% of those enterprises expect to.
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(InfoWorld) - Going virtual is becoming a real answer for data center managers, according to a survey of large and small businesses. Fifty-one percent of North American companies are either testing virtualization technology in their data centers or have already deployed it, according to a report released Friday by Forrester Research. Use of virtualization is less in Europe (35 percent either testing or deploying it) and Asia-Pacific (21 percent), but is generally growing nonetheless. Forrester compared results of a 2006 survey to a similar one in 2005 in which 41 percent of companies in North America, 30 percent in Europe and 23 percent in Asia-Pacific were using or testing virtualization. Although the Asia-Pacific number is lower in 2006 than 2005, Forrester notes the survey sample was smaller there than in the other regions. Whether or not they are using virtualization, interest in or even just awareness of virtualization grew in all geographic regions in 2006 from 2005. Virtualization refers to dynamic management of a company's total information technology infrastructure. The most common use of virtualization is in the operation of x86 servers in data centers. Virtualization makes it possible to run multiple software applications and operating systems simultaneously on one physical server. The result is that instead or running at only 15 percent to 20 percent of capacity, when one server runs only one application, servers can run at 80 percent to 90 percent of capacity. Thus, a company could spend less money buying servers. Although virtualization is more likely embraced by large enterprises, awareness of it by SMBsÂ is growing at a faster rate, the survey showed. Awareness of virtualization by Global 2000 large enterprises grew to 92 percent in 2006 from 87 percent in 2005. But awareness by medium-to-large business jumped to 86 percent from 60 percent andÂ to 83 percent from 62 percent by SMBs. Server virtualization software company VMware remains the dominant provider. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed would consider VMware for virtualization, versus just 9 percent for Microsoft's Virtual Server product. Only one respondent mentioned the open-source Xen virtualization software as a choice, while just six mentioned Sun's Solaris operating system, whose virtualization feature is called Containers. EMC, which operates VMware as a subsidiary,Â announced plans this week to launch an initial public offering of VMware stock. Microsoft, which introduced its Virtual Server product in 2004, is expected to launch an updated version later this year. Forrester surveyed 1,267 enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, and 503 SMBs with 100 to 999 employees for its report.
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Network Appliance today introduced tools to manage backup and storage tasks for VMware virtual servers.
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Server virtualization may be enterprise computing's latest technology, but a recent survey of corporate IT buyers shows that near-term adoption may not match the hype.
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Microsoft is inching closer toward the release of Virtual Server 2005. Virtual Server leverages the Windows 2003 Server system as a platform for running multiple instances of alternative operating systems on a single system. The final version of the Server will be made available on September 13th in two varieties: Standard and Enterprise. More information on Virtual Server is available in the BetaNews archives.
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The need to test packaged applications on virtualised systems could hold up the deployment of server virtualisation software, according to attendees at Gartner&#39;s datacentre conference in Las Vegas this week.
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Customers can manage both physical and virtual machines and plugs into existing systems management tools.
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IBM&#39;s new eServer allows users to run multiple OS environments at the same time to increase efficiency. Customers can purchase the machine based on the processing power they need. The server comes in configurations from one to four-way and ...
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InfoWorld - Server virtualization has, without doubt, taken the IT industry by storm. It provides a cost-effective way to dramatically reduce downtime, increase flexibility, and use hardware much more efficiently.
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Virtualization looks tasty, but VMware is so scary -- let's shack up with another also-ran!