Virtualization Strategies News, Analysis, White Papers and Case Studies on Virtualization Software and Hardware Strategies

Blade.org announced the results of a virtualization adoption survey which show that both large enterprises, and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have moved rapidly to adopt virtualization technologies using blade servers as their preferred hardware platform.

“Blade.org’s survey found that 82 percent of large IT organizations have implemented or are planning to implement virtualization on blade servers in the data center,” said Lisa Galish, Blade.org Marketing Committee chairperson. “However, even in SMB organizations, 28 percent have already virtualized on blade servers with an additional 36 percent in the planning stage. Blade servers have fundamental advantages in infrastructure consolidation, ease of management and cost reduction features that make them an ideal platform for virtualization technologies.” Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization News, virtualization

Cisco introduced its first server last week in a bid to help unify the data centers into one cohesive unit. By extending its product line, Cisco will also capture a larger share of spending in the still hot and growing data center market.

The approach, called a Unified Computing System, takes new Cisco networking equipment and packages it with Cisco’s first blade server, storage hardware and virtualization software. It expands Cisco’s role beyond networking and into the unfamiliar territory of server manufacturing, which is dominated by partners IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Cisco’s packaged system, which will go on sale in the second quarter, will provide an especially flexible and efficient architecture, enabling IT managers to get more out of their hardware. “It gives us a chance to be the leading company not just in communications but in IT,” said Cisco CEO John Chambers.

Chambers said the rise of virtualization in the last few years helped prompt Cisco to expand its role in the data center. Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News

This week at AFCOM’s Data Center World event in Las Vegas, the AFCOM Data Center Institute announced it’s Five Bold Predictions for the data center.  These predictions are:

1)      By 2015, the talent pool of qualified senior level technical and managerial talent to run data centers will shrink by 45%. This is alarming when you consider the dramatic growth in business data processing. The economy can be to blame as training programs are often quick to be cut. The other challenge is fewer students are opting for collegiate programs in high density computing. Companies like Data Center Journal offer excellent data center training programs.

2)      By 2010, more than half of all data centers will have to relocate to new facilities or outsource some applications. This is great news for firms that build date centers as well as colocation and managed services companies Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, Data Center Virtualization, Virtualization News

Over the past several years, virtualization has emerged as an easy and reliable way to improve disaster preparedness. This technology provides companies the ability to dramatically increase the efficiency and availability of their resources in the event of a disaster. Using virtualization, enterprises can ensure they are back online within minutes or hours, rather than days, weeks or months.

Most companies — from small businesses to fortune 500 corporations — are not prepared to recover from a fire, flood or other major disasters. Their DR plans are either weak or non-existent.

Here are some of the most common problems we find with traditional DR plans:

* Many are half baked.

* The plan is untested.

* Not all outsource partners are prepared.

* Recovery and production environments are incompatible.

Companies are increasingly abandoning their old DR platforms, and turning to virtualization technology to prepare their business for disaster and safeguard their assets. Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Virtualization Strategies

IBM introduces its cloud computing portfolio this week and showcased a few partners and customers. Big Blue’s cloud strategy remains focused on the enterprise; so you can’t pay by the minute with credit cards, like you can with Amazon Web Services and other general purpose cloud offerings.

For enterprise IT, cloud computing promises dramatically better ease of use, economies of scale and much greater flexibility in sourcing and adapting to change. The technologies comprising cloud computing - virtualization, SOA, Software as a Service, are technologies that IBM claims to have invented or are least, well-known for excelling in. IBM intends to help its clients and partners realize their cloud computing goals in three principle ways:

• Build their own cloud environments for internal and external use
• Deliver cloud services and software to be consumed by clients and partners directly
• Build an ecosystem of developers, partners, vendors and universities to further cloud computing and standards adoption

The partnership and strategy include: Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

How can VMware improve the world’s leading virtualization conference?  Make it a virtual conference, of course!  VMware teamed with Jive Software to take the once-per-year VMworld conference and extended it (online) into a 365-day-per-year, always-on community.

Eric Nielsen, Director of Web Communities, at VMware sums it up like this, “We expanded the VMworld conference from a three day event for 15,000 to a 365 day/year destination for 50,000 virtualization professionals.

By extending the user conference to a year-round event virtualization professional can now access virtualization information and services from IT peers, academics, vendors, and analysts 24/7/365.

Intel

Read More…

Posted under Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. just announced that its 1-10 Gigabit Ethernet switches is now  equipped with VMready^TM — making it the first network virtualization solution that automates the enterprise data center for dynamic “live” migration of virtual machines (VMs).

Now data center architects can use BLADE’s VMready switches to overcome network-based obstacles. The inability for security policies to move in concert with the VM is inhibiting broader adoption of server virtualization in the enterprise data center. VMready watches the Virtual Machine environment to ensure that when a live VM moves from one physical host to another, the destination network has been prepared in advance — preserving essential security, access and performance policies.

“In order to fully realize the benefits of server virtualization, dynamic migration of workloads is required,” said Joe Skorupa, Research Vice President, Enterprise Network Services and Infrastructure, Gartner, Inc. “To enable this environment, the underlying network must be able to automatically reconfigure itself to ensure that the appropriate polices and resources are in place before a VM is moved to a new host.” Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

OFFERS VIRTUALIZATION BENEFITS WITH OUT THE COST OF VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE

Rackable Systems, Inc. announced its new MicroSlice architecture, which eliminates the need for costly virtualization software and sets a new standard for price performance-per-watt. Basically, MicroSlice eliminates the need for virtualization software through what Rackable Systems calls “physicalization,” a hardware-based approach to virtualization which may improve the total cost of ownership.

“Rethinking the whole approach to an existing market is at times the best way to achieve the magic blend of reducing costs and improving performance”, said Mark Peters, senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. “Rackable Systems’ innovative mindset has achieved just that with its new building-block server architecture - delivering a package that is perfectly targeted for any users seeking to ‘do more for less’ in the current tight economic conditions”. Read More…

Posted under Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Software, Virtualization Strategies

Sun Microsystems announced that it has expanded its portfolio of small and medium-sized business (SMB) solutions with the introduction of two new virtualization solutions that combine Sun’s x64 server and open storage products with VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V software.

Sun said it’s SMB initiative delivers uniquely designed solutions for virtualization deployments, while reducing total cost and complexity. Sun’s SMB solutions portfolio includes Windows Essential Business Server (EBS), Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 upgrade, MySQL database and Sun’s secure web server solution. Sun’s overall commitment to open source software and industry-standard hardware make it easier and more affordable for SMBs to access Sun’s leading products. Customers can choose from a wide range of products and platforms like the Sun Fire x64 servers and Ultra-SPARC processor-based servers; multiple operating systems like Solaris 10, Windows and Linux; and industry-leading databases like Sun’s MySQL database. Sun’s SMB initiative continues to deliver customer value across a range of industries from media and entertainment to education and technology. Sun SMB customer case studies can be found at http://www.sun.com/customers/. Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, SMB Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization Products / Reviews

This week Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT management research and consulting firm released a research report which provides data and advice on managing virtualization deployments more effectively. The report is called: “Best Practices in Virtual Systems Management (VSM): Virtualization Metrics and Recommendations for Enterprises”

As with all major IT revolutions before it, virtualization has introduced new and difficult management challenges. Traditional management tools and processes are less useful for virtualization deployments, and without new approaches to Virtual Systems Management (VSM), enterprises will suffer from increased downtime, higher costs, staff shortages, lack of flexibility, competitive disadvantage, and many other problems.

Enterprise Management Associates’ research indicates that better response times, faster provisioning and improved efficiency are just of the few improvements seen with the use of specific VSM toolsets and best practices. Here are few other results a company might expect from following VSM best practices: Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Hardware Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization News, Virtualization Software, Virtualization Strategies