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

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

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

There are several methods for server virtualization. This video from Infoworld offers a nice overview of three configurations for server virtualization:

• Virtualization
• Paravirtualization
• OS Virtualization

Check back next week as I’ll dive deeper in to the strategies and benefits of these three virtualization strategies.

Posted under Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization Strategies, Virtualization Video

Half of All North American Developers to be Using Virtualization within 12 Months

With the recession putting downward pressure on IT and software development budgets, more application developers than ever are expected to begin working on virtualization projects, according to research firm Evans Data.

More than one-third of North American developers are currently involved with virtualization projects and 51% expect to be within the next twelve months according to Evans Data’s North American Development Survey released to subscribers last week.

The survey report of 400 developers conducted in October and November examines a broad range of software development issues.

Virtualization pioneer VMware dominates the virtualization tools market with 56% of developers involved with virtualization using its tools, and only Microsoft’s Virtual Server is a significant rival with 37% usage. Xen products from Citrix and Red Hat trail behind. Read More…

Posted under Virtualization News, Virtualization Strategies

Despite all that has been said about the benefits of server virtualization, most IT organizations have only virtualized a small portion of their servers - if any. According to Philip Dawson, a research vice president at Gartner only about 10 percent of today’s physical servers are virtualized, but within three years, that number could grow to 60 percent.

The reason is virtualization allows IT administrators to run multiple applications and operating systems on a single server, which helps organization reduce costs and increase efficiency. As virtualization continues to be a growing force in data centers, IT managers need the right strategies to successfully reconfigure their servers and prepare for the ripple effects on related technology infrastructure, such as storage and networks.

Here are six steps to successful server virtualization.

1) Be a bore, plan some more
Rather than being a one-size-fits-all solution, server virtualization must address the unique goals and resources of each agency that implements the strategy. The primary goal of a virtualization project might be reducing the number of physical servers, improving hardware use, cutting power consumption, bolstering disaster recovery capabilities or a combination of those objectives. Information technology managers must clearly define a practical endpoint and strategy based on the organizations existing resources and any restrictions imposed by budget and staff expertise. Read More…

Posted under Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization Strategies

At the Gartner Data Center event this week in Las Vegas, Thomas Bittman, a Gartner data center research vice president predicted the installed base of virtual machines will grow tenfold between 2007 and 2011. By 2012, the majority of x86 server workloads will be running in virtualization software.

“Virtualization is the most important and impact trend in IT infrastructure and operations through 2012-changing how you manage, what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan, how you charge. It also shakes up the industry, in terms of licensing, pricing and component management,” Bittman said.

Virtualization, however, is merely an enabler to some other important future trends, he said. Because virtualization creates a pool of manageable, flexible capacity, automation should take that pool of resources and do useful work, based on business policies and service-level requirements.

Also, the decoupling created by virtualization combined with defined service offerings and automation is a great enabler of cloud computing, Bittman said.

Bittman laid out the following eight bullet points that describe the nature of computing and storage virtualization over the next five years: Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, Data Center Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Strategies

VMware, Inc. announced plans to bring virtualization and its many proven benefits to mobile phones through the new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). VMware MVP will help handset vendors reduce development time and get mobile phones with value-added services to market faster. In addition, end users will benefit by being able to run multiple profiles - for example, one for personal use and one for work use - on the same phone.

“VMware is excited to extend the benefits of virtualization to the mobile phone market,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer of VMware. “By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users. We look forward to working closely with our partners to bring new mobile solutions to market faster.”

It’s not just VMWare that gets excited about virtualization for mobile phones; Gartner research sees virtualization in the mobile space as a very promising and potentially a fast emerging market.  “We predict that by 2012, more than 50% of new smart phones shipped will be virtualized.  Read More…

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

IBM announced it plans to acquire Transitive Corporation a leader in cross-platform virtualization and a pioneer in developing technologies that allow applications written for one type of microprocessor and operating system to run on multiple platforms — with little or no modification. As a result, the technology will enable customers to consolidate their Linux-based applications onto the IBM systems that make the most sense for their business needs.

This acquisition is part of IBM’s strategy to help clients optimize the efficiency and productivity of their computing infrastructure and improve the utilization of the servers that run them. With this translation technology, along with existing migration capabilities, IBM systems give businesses a faster, easier path for server consolidation to reduce operational expenses, floorspace and energy costs. Read More…

Posted under Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Strategies

IT organizations made server virtualization a top priority for 2008, according to research released by The Society for Information Management (SIM). SIM surveyed 300 member organizations in June and learned that the top five application and technology developments for the coming year include security, business intelligence, business process management (BPM), continuity planning and disaster recovery, and server virtualization.

Top Five Technology & Application Developments 2008:

1. Antivirus protection

2. Business Intelligence (BI)

3. Business Process Management (BPM)

3. Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery

5. Server Virtualization

The top two were the same top two from 2007.  The two items that tied for third both moved up from last year. Server Virtualization was new to the list. One item that was absent was Cloud Computing. Luftman said that it was way down on the list. Apparently, working CIOs aren’t biting on all of the excessive hype around Cloud Computing during 2008. Read More…

Posted under Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Strategies