First Steps: x86 Server Virtualization
The concept of
virtualization as a technology has been around for several years but if you’re
new to virtualization it can be puzzling, laced with very IT-specific language
that may baffle the lay person. If that’s the case then hopefully this first blog,
in a series of two, will help simplify this hot topic.
In essence, the
concept of IT virtualization is about rationalizing IT resources and can
involve virtualizing servers, desktops and/or applications; and, importantly it’s
also the basis for a whole range of cloud computing solutions being delivered today
by service providers. This first blog will cover the key aspects of x86 server
virtualization, but will be followed by a blog on desktop and application
virtualization.
x86 Server Virtualization - What’s the problem it’s solving?
One of the key
problems encountered by IT management is the management premise that they need
to continually deliver more (IT services), with less; this has been a major
thorn in the side of IT infrastructure managers for many years. Add to this the
fact that just keeping the “lights on” in their data centres almost completely
absorbs most of their budgets – anything from 70% to 95%. Analyst firms such as
Gartner and Forrester claim slightly different statistics but it wouldn’t be
unfair to suggest that monies available for new hardware/infrastructure
investments can be as low as 5% of their overall IT budgets. That’s a problem
when you start coming to the end of your server technology refresh period.
Server
virtualization itself is about consolidating multiple applications on fewer
physical servers. During the Windows NT era in particular (from 1993 to 2003
and beyond) it became common practice for companies to run one application per server
– but when a company has literally 100’s of applications this inevitably
resulted in a proliferation of servers and so called server “sprawl”. Thus the
primary benefit of ring-fencing an application on its own server so that either
a hardware or software fault couldn’t bring down another application running on
the same server eroded as associated operating and maintenance costs started to
rise. Add to this the fact that each server required an excess of CPU, memory,
networking and storage to run efficiently; and, so was effectively “over
resourced”.
Consolidation
of servers & pooled hardware resources
With the emergence
of x86 server virtualization technologies in 2001 it then became possible to
run multiple virtual machines (even running different operating systems), each
one being partitioned separately on a single physical machine. The beauty here
is that each virtual machine shares the system resources of the one physical
machine.
Improved
management of the virtual platform and High Availability on clustered systems
A key aspect of
virtualization is its inherent flexibility – particularly in clustered
configurations. As virtual machines can be encapsulated (creating a file image
of a complete system) this means that they can be quickly moved across
different physical machines – much like moving a file across a network. This
means that if a hardware fault develops on a server the application can be
rapidly moved from one physical machine to another. This also means that data
and applications can be recovered in a matter of minutes; and, if any
applications need to be shifted around (live migrations) to balance the
workload on a physical machine (i.e. they are starting to demand more
performance than this machine can deliver) or for server maintenance, this can
be done in real-time without the user even knowing.
Such improvements
in speeding up operational processes and server deployments (allowing for
proactive provisioning of new, virtual servers and applications according to
needs) means that fewer staff are required to maintain and manage the server
infrastructure. This is reinforced by further benefits including creating better
disaster recovery solutions and improving server reliability.
x86 Virtualization Vendors
According to Gartner
in their x86 server virtualization magic quadrant (June 2012), there are only 6
key players, with the original innovator, VMware, retaining a significant lead
in the market. However, VMware is being chased by both Microsoft and Citrix –
having both pushed into the “Leaders”quadrant during 2012. They are followed by
Oracle in the “Challengers” quadrant and by Parallels and Red Hat in the “Niche
Player” quadrant.
Conclusion
With server
virtualization technologies having been around over a decade then you would
imagine that almost all data centres and servers would be virtualized,
especially given the great claims for the technology. Well, Forrester claims
that only about 50% of servers around the globe are virtualized which does seem
odd. Indeed, vendors such as VMware claim that their virtualization customers can
save up to 50-70% on their overall IT costs by consolidating their resource
pools and delivering highly available machines… it’s a seemingly compelling
argument for virtualization.
But what is hidden
within these bare facts is that, although the technology has matured,
Enterprise customers are still reluctant to add virtualization to their
business critical applications for fear of negative performance impact; and, at
the other end of the scale there are many SMBs that simply don’t have a large
enough IT infrastructure to warrant virtualization. So the drive from 50% of
servers being virtualized to 90% or 100% may be a slow march!
Note: Tell us what you think. Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Have we missed something obvious? We'd love to hear from you!
Do you need some insight in a specific area? If so, contact us now on:
Email: geoff.fitzgerald@tech-research.co.uk; Tel: +44 7710-573688
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