preparing the data center for a move to virtualization
TRANSCRIPT
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1Focus Research 2010
Focus BrieF
Preparing the Data Center for a Move to Virtualization
Paul Korzeniowski | April 14, 2010
Introduction
Virtualization has become all the rage recently. This computing technique has the potential to help companies reduce
the number o servers in their data centers, decrease energy consumption, and lower operating costs. However like
everything else in lie, virtualization comes with new challenges, ones that companies need to be aware o in order to
maximize their use o the technology.
Analysis
Moving to a virtualized computing environment makes overseeing physical hardware easier because there are ewer
devices, but the tradeo is that it also makes running other components, such as sotware and storage, more complex.
Operating systems and systems management tools were designed largely or monolithic servers, so their capabilities donot translate well to virtual environments. Vendors, such as VMware and Microsot, have been trying to address these
issues, but there are instances where virtual system eatures are not as robust as those ound with traditional servers.
One challenge is fguring out how well each virtual server is unctioning. Perormance monitoring is difcult because a
variety o applications run in dierent areas o a server but share elements, such as the devices internal and external
storage. With so many moving elements, companies want to see which application(s) may be getting bogged down and
where the bottlenecks are arising. Virtual system vendors do oer perormance tools with their products, but in general,
they provide users with limited inormation. In some cases, they may not work with real time data, and in other instances,
they deliver broad rather than granular metrics.
Consequently, third-party suppliers, such as Uptime Sotware, Veam, and Vizioncore, have tried to fll the void. Sincebuying these tools adds to the overall cost o moving to a virtualized environment, companies should determine i their
organization will need such products during the evaluation process rather than ater a move to virtualization has been
given the Thumbs Up by management.
Backup is another area where added complexity is evident. Consolidating 10, 15, maybe even 20 servers onto one
platorm appeals to companies who eel that their data center is now being overrun with hardware. While vendors
have made progress with technologies, such as data deduplication, backup has remained a troublesome virtualized
application. Running a backup application can take several hours on traditional servers. I a company tries to consolidate
such applications onto a single device, there simply may not be enough time or them to get the job done. Companies
need to determine their backup needs in their initial evaluations, so it does not become a gottcha as they begin their
deployments.
In addition to technical issues, virtualization creates management challenges. This computing option blurs responsibilities
among ormerly distinct IT groups, such as server administrators, storage proessionals, network engineers, and security
teams. With all o these elements running on one system, there are no longer clear boundaries among these dierent
groups. Server administrators need to understand how virtual LANs operate, and the network has been extended inside
the host systems.
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Preparing the Data Center for a Move to Virtualization 2Focus Research 2010
In order to deploy and manage their systems, companies will need to cross pollinate their stas skill sets. So moving
to virtualization requires investments (sometimes signifcant) in training. As server virtualization invades the data center,
teams within the IT organization have to be prepared to work more closely together than they may have in the past. As
a result, companies may also have to overcome the tur issues and infghting, as dierent managers and groups vie or
control.
Conclusion
In sum, when a company adds virtualization eatures to its data center, some things become easier to deal with and others
become more complex.
Recommended Reading
Virtual Conerence Speakers Focus on Cloud, Value to Enterprises, How to Get Started
How to Ensure the Success o IT Projects
IT In Crisis Three Priorities or IT in 2010. Part 1
http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/virtual-conference-speakers-focus-cloud-value-enterprises/http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/how-ensure-success-it-projects/http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/it-crisis-three-priorities-it-2010-part-1/http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/it-crisis-three-priorities-it-2010-part-1/http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/it-crisis-three-priorities-it-2010-part-1/http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/how-ensure-success-it-projects/http://www.focus.com/briefs/information-technology/virtual-conference-speakers-focus-cloud-value-enterprises/ -
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Focus Research 2009 All Rights Reserved
Focus Research
Inormation Technology Group
July 2009
Virtualization Market Guide
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Virtualization Market Primer 2Focus Research 2009
Introduction
Table o Contents
1 Virtualization Basics Market denition and key things to know p 3
2 Going Deeper into the Virtualization Market p 53 Tools Glossary, checklists and vendor list p 10
I youre searching or a clear and thorough explanation o virtualization, youre in the right place Our Virtualization Market
Primer is designed to provide business decision makers and other potential buyers with basic knowledge about this
exploding market
The Market Primer begins with the most important acts about the virtualization industry:
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Virtualization is helped by hardware:5. Virtualization services can be applied to almost any combination o server
hardware and OS However, modern server and storage hardware releases increasingly add eatures designed to enable
and support higher levels o virtualization than possible with sotware alone Builders o chips based on the so-called x86
architecture that supports most commercial servers have delivered multiple versions o such hardware-assisted virtualization
Virtualization complicates application licensing:6. Not all application vendors agree on how to l icense their
sotware running in a virtual environment Some license their products by the deployment image, while others charge on
a per-processor, per-sever basis Beore you commit to running hundreds o instances o any application, make sure the
providers licensing scheme aligns with your needs and budget
Virtualization costs vary:7. Some vendors price their virtualization packages based on the number o sockets
or the number o processors per server Others roll the technology into a ull OS release For example, Virtual Iron
Extended Enterprise Edition on costs $799 per socket, regardless o the number o cores in the servers processor
VMware charges $1,540 or its Inrastructure Foundation sotware or a server with two processors A stand-alone
hypervisor can be downloaded ree rom Microsot and VMware There are also open-source virtualization solutions
emerging, as well as virtualization-enabled hosted services with even more widely varying base and optional costs
Virtualization needs and can help to improve management:8. Virtualization changes the management
equation Premise-based server virtualization introduces a new sotware layer between the OS and the hardware, and it
creates new objects that must be managed VMs, which are easily provisioned but oten just as easily orgotten, must also
be managed to avoid the risk o virtual server sprawl However, when managed well, virtualization can ease, speed and
lower the costs and complexities related to management o the overall IT inrastructure
Virtualization has many sources:9. Pure-play virtualization vendors, sotware and OS providers, hardware
manuacturers and hosted service providers all oer virtualization sotware Many virtualization technologies also originate
rom open-source projects
Virtualization is not a panacea:10. Some applications, such as Web-server apps, are a natural t Others, such
as print and le servers, wont make as much sense Similarly, not all users will benet rom a virtualized desktop
Top 10 Virtualization FactsIt improves hardware utilization.1.Its a major part o green computing.2.It can signicantly reduce operating costs.3.It can make your organization more agile.4.It can be helped by modern hardware.5.It can complicate application-licensing costs.6.Its initial cost varies widely.7.It increases management requirements.8.Its oered by multiple types o vendors.9.Its not suitable or all applications or users.10.
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Market Evolution: How Virtualization EvolvedThe present virtualization market takes a mainrame computing concept and applies it to the relatively small and medium-
scale x86 servers that are standard in todays datacenters Virtualization sprung to lie in IBMs labs in the 1960s
mainrame computing environment It was then abandoned in the 1980s during the rise o distributing computing and has
only recently reemerged to tame the costs and complexities associated with server prolieration in the modern datacenter
Today, virtualization technologies are taking aim at server sprawl, islands o data and gross underutilization o systems
Virtualization is also enabling and improving eorts at disaster recovery; business continuity; and server and datacenter
server consolidation, migration and modernization eorts
More than 30 years ago, IBM began delving into virtualization techniques as a way to partition mainrame computers
into separate VMs that could run various applications and processes simultaneously But the technology ell to thewayside along with mainrames as datacenters turned to x86 servers to run their client-server applications The
popularity o Microsot Windows and the Linux server OS plus low-cost servers quickly made the x86 platorm an
industry standard In 1998, the technology returned to market prominence when virtualization virtuoso VMware
applied it to x86-based systems
In the early 2000s, organizations began physically consolidating servers to take advantage o newer, better hardware
At the same time, VMwares oering became mature enough to deliver scale and perormance More organizations then
turned to virtualization or their sotware development and testing environments A ew years later, companies began
eeling comortable enough with the technology to use it to improve utilization o their business-critical production servers
Around 2005, organizations also saw in virtualization a way to drive down power consumption not to mention costs
in their datacenters
Virtualization technologies can be applied to storage and desktops as well as servers, but it is x86 server virtualization
that has attracted the most customers Ater all, server virtualization is the quickest and easiest way to reap the benets
o virtualization, particularly immediate cost savings A typical x86 server running Windows or Linux in a distributed
environment uses only about 20 percent o its capacity at best But server virtualization can boost the servers utilization
as much as 60 to 80 percent At this point, mostly enterprises with large datacenters have invested in virtualization, but
smaller companies stand to benet rom the technology as well This is especially true as more and more providers o
hosted and cloud-based services themselves use virtualized platorms to deliver their oerings
With the 2008 arrival o Microsots Hyper-V hypervisor oering, some say that virtualizations time has come In reality,
however, there are multiple commercial hypervisor oerings vying or market share, despite many being based on the
same open-source sotware roots
Vendor Landscape Summary: Todays Major Virtualization Players
Like any market with huge potential, everyone wants a piece o virtualization The industry is dominated by virtualization
pioneer VMware; open source leaders like Citrix and Red Hat; and industry heavy-hitters like IBM, Microsot and Sun
Microsystems Other pure-play vendors include Parallels and Virtual Iron Novell and Oracle also have virtualization oerings
Going Deeper into the Virtualization Market2
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Virtualization technologies are sold as a standalone application, such as VMwares fagship product, as well as integrated
with the latest server operating systems, beginning most notably with the release o Microsot Windows Server 2008 and
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 51
The other side o the virtualization coin is the hardware on which you run it Intel and AMD have designed chips withbuilt-in hardware-assisted virtualization technology, and several vendors, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun
Microsystems, oer systems built on these processors
Market Trends: How the Market Is Changing
The virtualization market is growing quickly as more and more organizations embrace the technology The our most
recent and signicant trends in the virtualization market include:
1. Entry o enterprise players: VMware is, by all accounts, the undisputed server virtualization market leader
Nevertheless, several industry titans have jumped in with oerings based on the open source Xen hypervisor:
Microsot Hyper-V hypervisor (which is included or ree with Windows Server 2008 and or which Citrix Systems
announced a ree express version o its Essentials management tool in July 2009)
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Oracle VM
Sun xVM
2. End-to-end virtualization: Beyond the benets o server virtualization in production environments, growing numbers o
companies are pursuing or considering initiatives intended to extend virtualization and its benets to network storage and
desktops
In a virtual storage environment, separate locally connected and/or networked storage resources are pooled,
then divided into partititions, each congured as storage dedicated to a specic user or task As with computing
servers, storage virtualization increases system utilization It also makes expanding and managing your storage
resources easier and more ecient
Desktop virtualization moves usual desktop applications o o the PC and onto a central server in the datacenter
Users have a thin client-like device but get an authentic, individual PC environment, such as Windows The buzz
around desktop virtualization is how simple managing hundreds o desktops can be when youre handling OS
patches, sotware installations, backups and more rom a centralized server
3. Advanced virtualization-management tools: Managing your virtual environment gets critical ast when you
start setting up multiple VMs on your physical servers In act, as hypervisors multiply and become more commonplace,
virtualization-management tools become a more important vendor dierentiator and more critical or users
Virtualization management should include live migration or VMs, workload management, dynamic provisioning and
virtual machine templates
Advanced virtualization-management eatures should soon also include tools to manage application lie cycles as
well as the physical and virtual servers, networking and storage rom a single view
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4. Application licensing and support: How vendors charge customers or the sotware, including operating systems,
that runs on virtualized servers has been a thorn in the industrys side Even i you have just one server, running and
paying or 100 OS instances is prohibitively expensive Its clear that mapping licensing ees to boxes doesnt work with
virtualization, so vendors are beginning to amend their l icensing to accommodate the technology
OS vendors are starting to oer new licenses One might be priced by the physical server and include license
rights to a particular number or unlimited numbers o guest images A dierent license might allow an
all-you-can-eat use or your existing hardware, which means that you dont have to purchase new sotware or
the virtual environment
The Microsot Windows Server 2008 Enterprise single-server license allows you to run our instances at a time on
one box Novell includes unlimited virtualization rights with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Prices can be based on a variety o hardware metrics, including the box, the number o processors or the number
o cores
Product and Features: The Essential Server Virtualization Features
Most organizations considering virtualization are rst trying to create a virtual server environment, so its important to know
what to expect rom a server-virtualization package Server virtualization is generally delivered either as a stand-alone
application or suite o applications that you install in addition to your server sotware, or it is integrated with a server OS
Every virtualization oering starts with the hypervisor, which abstracts the hardware rom the OS, allowing the computer to
run several instances o the OS The hypervisor also controls the computers resources and allocates them to the various
guest OSes running on the box Vendors dierentiate their products with management and business-continuity tools
1. Administration applications: Server-virtualization sotware operates behind the scenes, and only the network
administrators will work with it Administration applications include:
What Is Virtualization?Virtualization is a layer that separates logical computational operations rom physical
computing resources. This layer lets an application unction as though it has sole access to
compute resources, even though several applications and guest OSes may be running in
separate virtual machines on that computer.
Many commercial server virtualization solutions are based on the
open-source Xen hypervisor, so they are dierentiated by their:
ManageabilitySupport or dierent server OSes and hardware platormsOverall fexibilityCost
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Management console: This is where you create new VMs, start and stop them, monitor their perormance, and
access real-time and historical views o them It is also where VMs can and should be reassigned or deleted as
needs change, to avoid VM sprawl
Support or Microsot Windows and Linux guest OSes: Some server virtualization packages also support the
Solaris OS and Novell Netware as guest OSes on the server
Web browser-based user interace: This should include point-and-click interaces or creating and
decommissioning VMs
Remote management
Heterogeneous inrastructure support
2. VM management tools: Just like physical servers, VMs need to be managed as soon as theyve been provisioned
Tools or VM management may include:
Live migration: This lets you move a VM rom one server to another without powering down, so you have zero
downtime on the applications running on that VM
Rapid provisioning: VMs can be turned into templates or rapidly provisioning similar systems on the same server
or within a common pool o resources With rapid provisioning, new virtual servers can be up-and-running in a
matter o minutes
Import and export VM settings: This lets you clone VM settings across dierent hosts
Scalability and fexibility: The server virtualization sotware can support 8GB o memory to 64 GB o memory per
VM
Dynamic workload allocation: The ability to shit workloads among VMs and physical servers as dictated by
perormance or demand requirements or in response to physical or virtual server outages
Integration with tools or managing physical servers, to give inrastructure managers and administrators unied
views o their computing environments
3. Business-continuity applications: The greatest side eect o virtualization is the reliability it brings to your
datacenter Now most server-virtualization packages include tools to maximize business continuity, including:
Load balancing
Disaster recovery (including real-time or near-real-time avoidance o outages and rapid restoration ater outagesdo occur)
Live backups and snapshots o VMs
Automated process-driven ailover to back up resources in response to unplanned outages and during planned
outages or system maintenance
Automatic restart ater planned and unplanned outages
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4. Advanced management tools: Some vendors now oer advanced management packages in addition to their
standard server-virtualization oering that allow or more sophisticated and global control over the virtual inrastructure
They may include tools like:
VM lie cycle tools: Like physical tools, the lie cycle o VMs need to be managed rom when theyre provisioned
until theyre torn down
Single-view management o physical and virtual servers
5. Implementation: In general, implementing virtualization sotware is no dierent rom installing any other sotware
Many vendors make at least the hypervisor available as a ree download The package usually includes conguration
wizards to quickly walk you through the process Citrix, in act, claims that its XenServer can be installed and running in
about 10 minutes
Instead o the standalone sotware option, you can choose to implement virtualization technology along with a server
OS upgrade In addition, virtualization can increasingly be obtained and provisioned as a remotely hosted service
6. Vendor support: Again, vendors oer support similar to any other sotware product: online service ticketing, a choice
o technical-support levels, telephone support alternatives and sel-service tools on their Web sites I the virtualization
sotware is part o the OS, support is likely to be wrapped up in the package you opt or when you license the OS I you
opt or an open source hypervisor, you should be prepared to support it in-house, like with many open source projects
Benets: Why Businesses Buy Virtualization Sotware
The modern datacenter is built out the cheap x86 servers that prolierated quickly require lots o foor space, power
and cooling Also, the costs o operating the acility around the clock remain the same even i the servers are barely
utilized So, organizations are deploying server virtualization technologies primarily or three reasons: They need to
reduce their operating costs, theyve run out o physical space and/or power in their datacenter or theyre implementing
a green computing initiative (Other reasons include the desire to improve resiliency or to migrate to more modern server
platorms, but these can be viewed as subsets o the three primary reasons cited)
Virtualization can help companies signicantly shrink their operating costs in three areas: energy, inrastructure equipmen
and real estate A virtualized datacenter requires ewer physical servers than a traditional acility, so it requires less space
to rent and less hardware to purchase, run and cool In act, IDC reported that server virtualization can slash the annual
server cost per user by as much as 35 percent to 52 percent
Companies that have outgrown their datacenter space can nd a solution in server virtualization It lets you consolidate
applications on ewer servers and reins in physical server sprawl With server virtualization, you dont need to squeeze
in new boxes or additional capacity or add a new room to the datacenter You simply provision new VMs on an existing
server
As organizations strive to reduce their impact on the environment, many are looking or ways to make their IT shops more
environmentally riendly Virtualization can signicantly reduce your companys carbon ootprint by making the datacenter
ar more energy-ecient With ewer servers running in a smaller space, you consume less energy and ewer cooling
resources
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To simpliy a complex subject, weve included a set o tools that can help you understand the jargon used in virtualization,
a breakdown o the vendors currently oering virtualization products and a list that wil l help you evaluate whether your
datacenter needs virtualization
Needs Checklist: 10 Signs Your Datacenter Needs Virtualization
Glossary o Key Terms
Vendor Universe
3 Tools
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Needs Checklist: 10 Signs Your Datacenter Needs Virtualization
Do you need to reduce the amount your organization spends on maintaining your datacenter?1.
Virtualization can reduce operating costs as well as administration expenses
Do you need to contain server sprawl in your datacenter?2. Virtualization lets you consolidate inrastructure
and hardware by replacing physical boxes with virtual servers and combining applications on virtual servers
Do you need to increase systems utilization in your datacenter servers?3. Virtualization makes the most out
o the resources you already have, increasing server utilization rates rom 5 percent to as high as 80 percent
Do you need a better disaster-recovery plan?4. Virtualization sotware makes it easy to duplicate virtualenvironments as well as create backups
Do you need to increase data availability?5. Virtualization can lead to better perormance or your applications
and storage It also lets you recover data more quickly
Do you need your systems to be fexible and to scale on demand?6. Virtualization lets you move applications
to servers that supports scaling up or scaling down as demands change with just a ew mouse clicks
Do you need to be able to quickly set up and tear down test and development environments?7.
Virtualization allows or rapid server provisioning, which can be done with VMs created rom snapshots o previous
environments
Do you need to make it easier to update and manage user applications?8. Virtualization allows you to push
out sotware updates, OS patching and new sotware installations rom a central server to virtual desktops
Do you need to improve security on your systems?9. Virtualization allows you to isolate applications and give
them very granular access rights
Do you need to make resources available to more users across the enterprise network, regardless o10.
their geographical location? Virtualization lets you pool computing and storage resources, separating them rom their
physical location on the network, and lets users across the enterprise access them
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Application virtualization: Sotware technology that allows an application to be installed and managed rom a central
server in the datacenter while executing on end-user client devices as though it is running on the devices underlying OS
Bare-metal installation: The virtualization sotware is installed directly on the hardware and acts like a host OS
Desktop virtualization: In a consumer context, desktop virtualization reers to sotware that allows a desktop or laptop
computer to run multiple OSes In an enterprise context, it reers to sotware that centralizes hosting and managing
desktops rom a datacenter while delivering individual, personalized PC-like experiences to end users on PCs or so-called
thin client devices Desktop virtualization is also oten called virtual desktop inrastructure or workspace virtualization
Dual-core processor: A processor with two execution cores Dual-core is oten also called two-way
Guest operating system: The OS installed inside a VM
Host operating system: The OS installed on the physical hardware The virtualization sotware is installed on the host
OS, which shares physical compute resources with the VMs
Hypervisor: The thin layer o sotware that runs between the hardware and the virtualization services The hypervisor
manages hardware requests rom guest OSes as though each guest OS was running on separate physical hardware Also
see VMM
Live migration: Moving a virtual machine rom one host OS to another without powering down or disrupting business orcomputing operations
Paravirtualization: The type o high-perormance server virtualization most oten used on x86 servers Paravirtualization
installs a thin layer o virtualization sotware between the hardwares compute resources and the guest OSes
Storage virtualization: Pools storage resources rom multiple physical networked storage devices to create logical
allocations o storage resources that each appears as a single device to users
VDI (Virtual Desktop Inrastructure): Another term or desktop virtualization
VM (virtual machine): The virtual container created by virtualization sotware in which a guest OS and related
applications run It has virtual hardware resources, including processor, memory and more, and is managed by the
virtualization sotware
Virtual machine density: The ratio o virtual machines to physical machines in a datacenter
VMM (virtual machine monitor): Another term or hypervisor
Glossary: Understand the Key Terms or Virtualization
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Virtual servers: The guest OS and related applications running as a server in a virtual machine
Virtual storage: The pool o storage resources created in storage virtualization
Virtualization layer: The layer o sotware that perorms the hardware abstraction
x86 computer: A computer based on an x86 processor, which can support either 32-bit or 64-bit sotware
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A number o vendors are now oering a variety o virtualization solutions The ollowing is a list o the leading providers,
categorized by their products and delivery methods
EMC
Microsot
Sun Microsystems
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Symantec
Citrix
Parallels
Red Hat
VMware (now owned by EMC)
BEA Systems
BMC Sotware
Novell
EMC
Vendor Universe: Know Your Top Vendor Options
Vendors that provide end-to-end solutions or server, storage and desktop virtualization:
Vendors that provide server and storage virtualization solutions:
Vendors that provide server and desktop virtualization solutions:
Vendors that provide server virtualization solutions:
Vendors that provide storage virtualization solutions:
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OpenVZ
Oracle
Parallels
Virtual Iron Sotware
DataCore
EMC/VMware
IBM
LetHand Networks
Pano Logic
Quest Sotware
BMC Sotware
CA
NetApp
PlateSpin
AMD
Intel
Vendors that provide desktop virtualization solutions:
Vendors that provide tools to manage virtual environments:
Vendors that provide hardware-assisted virtualization equipment:
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