An open source path to virtualisation

To achieve a highly efficient ramp-up, virtualisation technology from industry powerhouses IBM, Intel and Novell are the answer. The Solution for Open Virtualisation (SOV) builds multi-platform virtualisation support and management directly..
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MESSAGING ARCHITECTS, a maker of email policy, security and mobility applications, has a lofty goal this year: To broaden its product deployment options to include offerings such as virtual appliances and hosted services. Branden Black, vice president of hosted solutions, knows that for the Montreal-based company to be successful he has to rapidly expand his data centre to support the extra workload without sending costs sky high. “We need high availability and flexibility for our customers, and to know that we’re approaching 100 per cent utilisation out of our hardware costs,” Black explains. To achieve a highly efficient ramp-up, Black is turning to emerging virtualisation technology from industry powerhouses IBM, Intel and Novell. Their partnership, called the Solution for Open Virtualisation (SOV), builds multi-platform virtualisation support and management directly into the processor, server and operating system. Black says SOV enables him to beef up his data centre without overextending his physical infrastructure. “In most environments, we’d be stuck at 20 per cent server utilisation. With the IBM, Intel and Novell approach, we’re in the 90 percent range,” he says.

What makes this strategy unique, Black says, is the fact that IBM, Intel and Novell provide an open solution that is backed by enterprise management and support. “If I had to do separately what they tie together, I would have a management nightmare. With SOV, I can manage my virtual and physical environments with just a few clicks, veering into Virtualisation. Today, it’s no news that most leading global companies are battling server sprawl. With data centre real estate shrinking and capacity requirements dramatically increasing, IT teams are looking for a way to consolidate resources without breaking the bank. According to research firm IDC, only about 10 per cent of the total computing resources within an average data center are actually utilised. Therefore, companies are turning to virtualisation to address this challenge.

A report by IDG, parent company of IDC, found that 83 per cent of respondents hoped to reduce their total cost of ownership by implementing virtualisation. They also cited the ability to simplify IT infrastructure and administration; to create a flexible/scalable IT infrastructure; and to optimise system performance as desired outcomes of their virtualisation initiatives.

Virtualisation has proven to be instrumental in all of these areas, while helping to reduce capital costs associated with buying new server hardware as well as to lower power and cooling costs. With the added benefit of decreased administrator-to-server ratios, the growing trend toward virtualisation allows IT to take on more projects without additional overhead.

For Black, virtualisation has enabled him to better serve his client base in two ways: With more choice and better back-end support. “Virtualisation gives us the opportunity to open up to a much larger market of clients. It also has been beneficial internally, allowing him to make better use of his own hardware investment. “With the addition of hosting, we have to take better advantage of our infrastructure while at the same time making sure we have less to manage. So far, virtualisation has been much better for redundancy, reliability and failover, Opting for Open Source Virtualisation is definitely taking off today in IT organisations — IDC expects virtualisation software revenue to reach $3.4 billion by 2011. However, when it comes to the pros and cons of proprietary vs. open source virtualisation software, some wrong perceptions about the readiness of an open source virtualisation solution are surfacing. For example, while IT decision makers recognise the lower cost and flexibility benefits of open source, the pre- and post-sales support and integration component remains in question. Any environment that is good for proprietary virtualisation is also good for open source virtualisation. They have the same basic operational ability. However, the difference comes in manageability. Open source tends to have a better ecosystem of manageability,” says Andi Mann, research director at Enterprise Management Topping It All Off.

One of the most important decisions when considering open source virtualisation is what host operating system you’re going to use, according to Novacoast’s Aronson. “You have to know if it’s a point offering or a component within a broader ecosystem. Is there a publicly available product road-map that you can do your budgeting around?”

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Source：merine news