16-02-2013, 02:58 PM
Virtualization – Virtual Machine Software is Just the Beginning
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VIRTUALIZATION — FROM MAIN FRAMES TO
INDUSTRY STANDARD SYSTEMS
With the inherent capabilities of computers, virtualization has become a major
catch phrase being bandied about in the media today. Usually, the media
mistakenly equates virtual machine technology, technology that can encapsulate
all of the software that runs on a physical system and allows that capsule to run
along side of others on a single system, with virtualization itself. It is often
presented as something new and different rather than a well-established group of
technologies with a long track record of success in data centers around the
world. Suppliers, such as Intel, have been involved with all levels of virtualization
technology for a very long time.
The exciting news is that virtualization technology, something that has been part
of mainstream IT for decades, is now available as part of agile high volume,
industry standard environments as well. It is due to the efforts of Intel and other
suppliers of IT hardware and software that this has occurred.
THE WHAT AND WHY OF VIRTUALIZATION
WHAT IS VIRTUALIZATION?
Virtualization is the use of hardware and software technology to present a logical
view of resources. This logical view is often strikingly different than the actual
physical view. What does this really mean? System users may see the image of
many different computers even though it is a single system. They may see many
individual systems as a single computing resource. Individuals can be allowed to
access computing solutions with devices that didn't exist when developers
created the applications. Applications may appear to use devices that have long
been considered obsolete even though none are actually present.
As one might expect, adding layers of software between the application and the
underlying physical system could have performance implications. After all, the
underlying systems are doing more work to support this logical or virtualized view
to developers and users. Intel and other suppliers have been investing heavily in
technology that would ease that burden and provide levels of performance in
virtualized systems that closely approximates the performance of a physical
system.
WHY VIRTUALIZATION?
With overall server utilization in many workload environments under 20%, the key
to adoption of virtual machine software boils down organizations wanting to make
the most of available technology, increase their levels of efficiency and agility;
improve their ability to provide products and services to customers. In the end,
organizations are seeking ways to use technology to both increase its revenues
and lower its costs.
Virtualization can present the image that solutions never slow down or fail by
deploying redundant systems. It can optimize the use of systems moment by
moment throughout the day. Costs of hardware and software can be
reduced in a virtual environment without letting staff-related costs go through
the roof. Organizations can put many independent applications on a single
system to make full use of the processing power of today’s systems as they
track Moore’s Law. They could also use virtualization technology to spread
work over many systems to achieve levels of scalability or performance that
was simply unheard of just a few years ago.
One of the areas offering the largest immediate return on investment is using
virtualization technology to manage complete environments as a single
domain even though they’re really made up of a diverse collection of
individual systems.
Virtualization is a bigger topic and has a larger impact than many in the industry
understand. Suppliers, such as Intel, have made it possible for industry standard
systems to take advantage of this technology
VIRTUALIZATION — MAINSTREAMTOOLS
There are many layers of technology that virtualize some portion of a computing
environment. Each of these tools can be applied to making industry standard
systems part of a larger, more efficient, more productive computing environment.
Here’s a graphical representation of those tools.
Let’s quickly review how each type of virtualization helps organizations.
Access Virtualization makes it possible for nearly any type of device to be
used to access nearly any type of application over just about any type of
network. Using this technology, developers aren’t forced to change
applications to allow individuals get things done using a hand held device, a
thin client, a laptop computer or even a desktop system.