What Virtualization Can Do For You

March, 2006
By Tech News Staff Writer Jonathan Peace

Server Virtualization: An Environmentally-Friendly Way To Save Money and Increase Flexibility In this era of rising power costs and environmental consciousness, "greentech" server virtualization technology can be an effective way to reduce your computing footprint while giving your nonprofit organization more cost-effective and flexible network solutions than ever before.

Virtualization: A way to run multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer or server. Virtualization allows you to achieve a higher server density, thus creating considerable potential savings on hardware and licensing fees.

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The Bottom Line: If server sprawl is an issue for you...if your network servers need to be updated...if you're concerned about reducing the environmental impact of your computing hardware...server virtualization technology may be the right solution for you.

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Does Your Organization Suffer From Server Sprawl? It's a common problem in the cramped offices of many New York City non-profit agencies: server sprawl! In order to keep costs low, organizations purchase inexpensive, low-end network servers and dedicate each one to a single application. As a result, each server ends up significantly under-utilized - often operating at 20% or less of its capacity. As new needs develop, more servers are added. Soon, these servers are taking up a lot of valuable space, consuming a great deal of electricity, and posing a challenge to keep cool! Even worse, such a server system can be frustratingly inflexible, difficult to maintain and dependent upon outdated software that's no longer supported. Replacing all your servers is expensive and doesn't guarantee you won't have the same problem a few years from now. The Virtualization Solution With Server Virtualization, software is used to virtually divide the hardware resources of a computer or network server. Virtual machines are created that can run their own operating system (including a host operating system (AKA "Hypervisor") and a guest operating system) and applications just like a "real" computer or server.. Virtualization can be accomplished through physical or logical partitioning of assets (hardware and/or firmware).

Server Sprawl: A situation where under-utilized servers take up space and consume more resources than can be justified by their workload. Server sprawl can put a strain on an organization's power and space capabilities. Hypervisor: A virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. Major Virtualization Vendors: VMware, Microsoft, XenSource, Virtual Iron, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun.

Virtualization creates the illusion of a dedicated server for a single operating system and application, when in reality you are running multiple applications - and even multiple operating systems - all on a single server.

This technology has existed for around 30 years, but recent developments have made the application of this technology much more effective and practical to large-scale networks - and possibly, for your nonprofit organization.

What Virtualization Can Do For You

Virtualization offers you two major potential benefits: cost-savings and increased flexibility.

Cost-savings are achieved through a much greater utilization of your servers at a fraction of the costs related to new hardware, maintenance, facility space, electricity and cooling. In some cases, the workload capacity of your servers can be effectively doubled, greatly reducing server sprawl and all the expenses that accompany it.

All of this is accomplished with no reduction in performance. You'll enjoy the same effective network environment with a much smaller (and less expensive) computing footprint.

Flexibility is accomplished because of the nature of virtualization. Instead of being limited to one server with one operating system and a single application, now your servers can be much more flexible and versatile, running multiple platforms and applications at the same time.

With Virtualization, the 'hard-coded'Virtualization creates the illusion of a dedicated server for a single operating system and application, when in reality you are running multiple applications ? and even multiple operating systems ? all on a single server. links between hardware and software are broken down to allow computing components to be dynamically combined for maximum efficiency and agility. This allows system resources to be maximized across your entire data center in the configuration that best meets your needs.

Making the Decision To Pursue a Virtualization Strategy

If you have the responsibility of making the purchasing decision for your nonprofit organization, there are several important factors you need to consider:

1. Risks vs. Rewards
To determine if virtualization can help your organization, you must first look at your needs. Do you currently have a problem with server sprawl, or do you foresee such a problem in the future? Does your current network solution lack flexibility, or is it in need of modernization and upgrades?

Virtualization works best if you're using applications designed for small- to medium-scale usage. With high-performance applications that might require multiple servers on their own, you'll risk considerable reduction in performance if you attempt virtualization.

To stay on the safe side, experts recommend that you never let a server exceed 50% CPU utilization during peak loads.

2. Personnel Needs & Training
In order to deploy a virtualization strategy, you'll need to give some thought to personnel and support issues. In the long-term, virtualization has been shown to reduce IT costs by reducing the complexity of your server and eliminating server crawl.

However, the initial transition to virtualization can be challenging. Major virtualization vendors offer support, but ultimately you'll need to know how the new virtualization platform will be supported and what training is required to make that happen.

3. Data Center Design
If you choose to pursue a virtualization approach, you'll need to give some thought to the design of your data center. Choosing low-end server platforms for virtualization may not ultimately be cost-effective, since high-end server platforms offer a higher virtual machine density that can maximize the advantages that virtualization offers.

Using a top-end environment can effectively double the number of virtual machines the server is capable of running with no corresponding increase in CPU utilization. This can result in a significantly better Total Cost of Ownership over a 3 year period compared to an entry-level environment.

Similarly, you'll need to carefully evaluate your needs to determine whether the advantages of a 4-way server justify the initial higher procurement cost. Typically a 4-way top-end server can support twice the number of virtual machines as a 2-way top-end server.

When executing your virtualization strategy, you'll need to pay close attention to some old issues. Because virtualization leads to fewer single points of failure, you'll need to take steps to ensure reliability, availability and serviceability of your network. This is a good time to enact more strict security policies. In addition, some software applications may need to be 'virtualization-aware', so upgrades may be required.

The Bottom Line

If server sprawl is an issue for you...if your network servers need to be updated...if you're concerned about reducing the environmental impact of your computing hardware...server virtualization technology may be the right solution for you.

In a well-designed top-end environment, server virtualization can provide the same performance as your current network...significant cost-savings over the long-term (including space, hardware, power, and cooling)...greater network flexibility...and a smaller, more environmentally-friendly computing footprint.