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

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

Cisco Systems is preparing to enter the server market as early as March, according to an article in the New York Times. The article, which claims to have inside sources, said Cisco aims to sell a server combining hardware and virtualization software from Cisco and VMWare Inc.

Speculation on Cisco’s move into the server market has been going on for several months. Many experts agree that this is a logical extension for a company that has a dominate market share in other network products like switches and routers. One interesting thing to watch is how long time allies like HP and IBM will feel about Cisco competing with them in the server market.

Virtualization technology offer business tremendous benefits and a networking company like Cisco see an opportunity to produce a new, potentially disruptive class of hardware and software management systems that span an entire data center. With businesses looking to manage their data centers as a single entity rather than separate units, Cisco’s entrance in the server market could make them the core supplier of data center technologies (Cisco has a minority stake in VMWare – the leading supplier of virtualization software. Read More…

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

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

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

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

Quite a lot according to a Dennis Chung, an IT Pro evangelist based in Singapore. Dennis recently, profiles a server virtualization project that he did for O2Micro where his client saved an estimated $115,000 in three years.

Here’s is an overview of this server virtualization case study. As an IT Manager, Dennis’ client Bernard needed to meet the business process needs with IT infrastructure that is cost effective, and positive ROI. In the past months, he’s been working on virtualizing his computing environment. Bernard was to planning to increase computing availability from 18 to 70 computing servers world wide distributed across 6 geographical locations. The computing infrastructure needed to be efficient, cost effective, easy to manage and deploy, saves power and maximizes utilization of hardware.The current server utilization stood at at an average of 15% to 25%.

Read More…

Posted under Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization Products / Reviews

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.”

Read More…

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

Gartner Analyst concludes that virtualization is the most strategic technology trend for IT and business. Each year Gartner analyst examines the latest industry trends during their symposium and highlights the 10 most impactful technologies.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. These technologies impact the organization’s long-term plans, programs and initiatives. They may be strategic because they enable strategic advantage from early adoption.

In forecasting the impact of the economy on IT spending, Gartner put virtualization near the top of must-have technologies. To date much of the focus has been on server virtualization, but virtualization also has many benefits in other areas such storage. Gartner analyst Carl Claunch said that in storage, for instance, virtualization allows users to “to combine different kinds and generations of storage technology.” That gives them the freedom to mix and match storage technologies based on competitive bids.

Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, Green IT, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Strategies

Migrating systems to a virtualized environment can deliver significant efficiency gains and cost savings, but it has to be planned carefully. Martin Courtney explains how IT leaders can improve the odds of success

Server virtualization, which allows multiple virtual machines to run separately on a single physical computer system, has become a priority for many IT departments, thanks to the multitude of benefits it delivers. But IT manager considering deploying the technology need to be aware of how different priorities can affect their implementation plans.

A key question to ask is what are the primary goals of your virtualization project? Consolidation is the most common driver for adopting server virtualization. Other goals reduced hardware maintenance costs, or more in the “Green IT” area such as reduced energy consumption or a company’s carbon footprint. Read More…

Posted under Green IT, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization Strategies