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

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

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

VMware on Tuesday released VMware View 3, new software aimed at providing desktop virtualization, application virtualization and management of virtual desktops in one product.  This technology helps IT organizations reduce storage cost, improve user experience and enables IT to rapidly provision and update thousands of desktop from a single image.

This is a major advance in virtual desktop computing. With VMware View 3, IT organizations can “decouple” a desktop from specific physical devices or locations to create a personalized view of a user’s desktop, applications, and data that is securely accessible from almost any device, at any time. By hosting these virtual desktop images in the datacenter using VMware View 3 IT personnel can provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops simply, securely, and with substantially lower operating costs. Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Software

Microsoft announced the release of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SC VMM 2008) which adds support for VMware ESX Infrastructure virtualization technology. The move by Microsoft is unprecedented as Microsoft usually let third parties manage non-Microsoft software. Now Microsoft can manage VMware virtualization technology.

A consistent theme from large and small companies is these groups are looking to aggressively manage costs and improve operational efficiency.  Microsoft’s new virtualization software addresses these areas.  First, IT managers can acquire Microsoft  virtualization offerings for about 1/3 the cost of what a comparable VMware installation would cost, helping them realize immediate cost reduction benefits.  The portfolio of technologies Microsoft offers spans the entire IT infrastructure from the desktop to the datacenter, while providing the tools for managing a customer’s infrastructure and apps regardless of whether it’s their physical or virtual assets. Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Software

Cisco announced it is collaborating with VMware to deliver a storage area networks (SANs) designed specifically to help businesses improve the security, scalability and management of storage networks attached to VMware environments. This solution is  in line with Cisco’s increasing focus on being a key vendors for companies building next generation data centers.  Cisco refers to this as “Data Center 3.0″ which  entails the real-time, dynamic orchestration of infrastructure services from shared pools of virtualized server, storage and network resources, while optimizing application performance, service levels, efficiency and collaboration.

Virtual machines allow IT  managers to run multiple applications and operating systems on a single physical machine. Virtualizing the data center improves resource use and provides a simpler and more efficient computing model to meet customer needs. The combined solution of Cisco MDS SANs with the VMware platform helps customers to more easily implement storage consolidation, disaster recovery, business continuity and storage backup solutions, as well as improve the visibility, security, and traffic isolation of applications. Read More…

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

There is a data explosion in business and many vendors are working hard to help IT Managers solve their data challenges. Today, HP today continued to do it’s part and announced a software and hardware storage virtualization solution that enables enterprises to improve productivity, simplify operations and achieve lower total cost of ownership for their storage-area network (SAN) environments.

HP has been growing its portfolio of storage virtualization solutions, and this new HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform (SVSP) promises to improves the efficiency and simplify the management of  midrange storage arrays.

HP SVSP is a network-based storage platform that pools capacity across HP and non-HP storage hardware. As a result, enterprise customers deploying Fibre Channel SANs are able to significantly simplify operations and improve overall productivity.

Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Software

Sometimes it takes either a significant service outage or major change in your business (or the economy), to get business leaders to re-examine whether your IT infrastructure and resources are performing efficiently and effectively? All too often, businesses only re-examine their IT infrastructure when a major snafu has occurred or some external force has turned the business model on its head.

It’s not surprising that many IT managers shy away from reviews of their IT systems and react only when upset customers are wondering why an order is late or a database has been compromised. The good news is IT projects often challenge traditional Return On Investment (ROI) analyses, since the gains in productivity and service quality can be elusive to capture on a spreadsheet while the costs are all too apparent. With IT budgets often consuming 10% or more of revenue, many managements seize the temptation to simply cap IT spending at a fixed percentage of total budget.

No IT executive can reasonably expect a CEO or board of directors to sign off on an IT project without hearing a solid business case for the investment any more than they would authorize a capital expenditure or new subsidiary without scrutiny. Yet, a study by the Gartner Group revealed otherwise. Gartner found that only 20% of organizations undertaking large systems projects and only 50% embarking on a re-engineering of their systems ever developed a business case for the project. And of those that did, even fewer checked back to see if the projects ever hit their goals.

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Posted under Hardware Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization Software

Can a leader in open source technology also become a leader in virtualization software? Red Hat already offers virtualization feature sets in it’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux Platform and it promising more more virtualization solutions ahead. Red Hat’s recent acquisition of Qumranet, (which includes Solid ICE - a fully integrated desktop virtualization product) shows they are committed to being a major force in the virtualization market.

So does this mean we can all have open sourced virtualization software for free? Well that depends. Open source companies like Red Hat do actually charge money for subscription based services, consulting and training. Yet, subscription-based model are unlike the traditional software licensing models. Proprietary software typically “locks-in” customers into paying for the license to use it. Open source customers can continue to use open source software even after they decide to discontinue subscription. Of course, you no longer have access to support services and updates afforded by the subscription.

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

Research company IDC today released it latest study on Green IT. For the second year in a row IDC has found IT managers’ leading reason for adopting Green IT technologies has to do with reducing energy cost. Even though recent economic issues have reduced oil prices back down to $80 a barrel, energy cost are still a major concern for data center managers.

Other interesting finding from the study are that most IT managers expect to pay more for Green IT products. This makes sense as IT managers will get a better ROI from a high capacity virtualized server, than several lost cost dedicated servers. In the end the IT manager can reduce the number of servers and related IT hardware in the data center. This leads to reductions in real estate, power and cooling requirements, resulting in significantly lower IT costs. This is good news for the IT vendor community as well because a high end virtualized blade servers has a higher margins.

Other reason IT manager are looking to “go green” with their IT planning is from pressure from upper management. This may have a lot to do with the fact that “being green” is good for a company’s reputation. More and more customers are looking for green suppliers of their goods and services. There is also a concern that governments will regulate a companies carbon foot print and use of renewable energy.

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Posted under Cloud Computing, Data Center Virtualization, Green IT, Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization News, Virtualization Software, Virtualization Strategies

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker, worldwide virtualization license shipments in the second quarter of 2008 (2Q08) increased 53% year over year. The x86 server market led the way with 60% year-over-year growth followed by the EPIC server market with 18% growth.

“Quarterly totals of x86 server virtualization licenses continue to experience healthy growth, although the growth rates have slowed over the last four quarters. The modest decline in growth rates indicates that the market is showing early signs of maturation,” said Brett Waldman, research analyst for System Software at IDC. “Based on our conversations with end users, IDC believes that the high-volume consolidation opportunities – the low hanging fruit in the x86 server virtualization market – is starting to dry up. This is, in turn, resulting in smaller deals overall.”

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Posted under Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Software