There is a lot of buzz going around about Virtualization. What is Virtualization, and what benefits does it provide? In this article we will take a look at the technology to see how it can provide a great deal of flexibility and cost effectiveness for IT professionals and software developers.
Virtualization technology allows multiple virtual machines to run on a single host computer. These virtual machines can run different operating systems, such as Windows, Linux and UNIX. Each virtual machine has its own set of virtual hardware resources (e.g., CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, etc) allowing the operating system to run as if it were installed on a physical machine.
The benefits of Virtualization technology are far reaching. Many organizations have moved to the virtual machine solution to consolidate multiple servers, running side by side on a single physical machine. Server consolidation allows IT professionals to fully utilize server resources, while isolating virtual machines and allowing them to run different operating systems and applications. Software developers utilize virtual machine technology to quickly test applications on different operating systems, without the hassle of setting up multiple physical machines for testing or taking the risk of causing problems by testing in a production environment.
You can run Virtualization software on pretty much any platform. Once the software is installed it is simple to create virtual machine instances. Virtual machines are just a set of files located on the host machine. You configure your virtual machine settings on the host computer, install the operating system and you are ready to go. It is a very common practice to use a master image of a virtual machine. This master image can be a fully configured machine, with the operating system and all required applications installed. You can then rapidly deploy virtual machines by copying the master image to multiple Virtualization hosts to provide zero downtime and 100% server availability.
There are a number of Virtualization products available. VMWare, which is probably the most popular, recently announced that it will be releasing a free version of its GSX Server product. This will allow any organization to host virtual machines on either Windows or Linux hosts. Other Virtualization products include Microsoft’s Virtual Server and SWsoft’s Virtuozzo, just to name a few.
By: Matt Peterson
Posts Tagged ‘Host Computer’
What Is Virtualization?
December 15th, 2009Virtualization strategies to optimize IT resources
September 1st, 2009Virtualization is the technology, which allows companies’ business application to be managed by host’s hardware. It allows companies of all sizes to cut costs, improve IT services and manage risk. It reduces cost for hardware, space and energy usage. For small and medium sized businesses, the technology brings a variety of capabilities and ROI benefits, and also facilitates them to keep their competitive edge in the marketplace.
According to latest data, approximately 20 percent of the servers are now virtualized and will double over the next two years. With virtualization, multiple applications can share a single physical server therefore the workloads of SMBs can be moved from one host to another without downtime. The adoption of virtualization on x86 platforms provides advantages to SMBs like fewer and better servers, reasonable business continuity and efficient management.
Virtualization benefits to the SMBs
Today, virtualization has become a critical IT strategy not only for large enterprises but also for small and mid-sized businesses. In addition to cost savings, it also allows companies to eliminate planned downtime for hardware maintenance. Further, various software giants like Microsoft, IBM, Intel and VMware are simplifying the transition to virtualization for SMBs to test and implement disaster recovery plans, data restoration and balance real-time workloads.
The virtualization technology can be implemented for servers or for operating systems (OS), called hypervisor-based virtual machines. Hypervisor or virtual machine monitor (VMM) allows multiple or guest operating systems to run on a host computer concurrently. Also, it can mix various versions of Windows and Linux simultaneously.
Since 2004, the virtualization technology has transformed dramatically. With one server with a quad-core Xeon 5500 series processor, a company can take same amount of work that once required eleven single-core servers. Therefore, the new processor can provide ROI in just two years.
According to the research firm, Gartner, in 2009, worldwide virtualization software revenue will increase 43 percent from $1.9 billion in 2008 to $2.7 billion and the also ranked the technology as the number one strategic technology for next year.
Microsoft Virtualization Tools
With Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft helps customers to save their cost and improve business continuity by providing an end-to-end virtualization platform. In February, 2008 Microsoft had introduced the successor of Windows Server 2003 called Windows Server 2008. Its updated version named Windows Server 2008 R2, was released to manufacturing on August 14, 2009 and is due for release on October 22nd. The company has also said that its end-to-end technologies and solutions allow broader opportunities with strong partner support.
IBM-VMware Solutions
The IBM X-Architecture provides support for small to very large workloads and also IT to consolidate many x86 server workloads onto a single machine. Further, VMware Infrastructure, with IBM System x and BladeCenter platforms, offers SMBs a flexible and cost-effective development platform for virtualization. VMware VMotion also helps to move running virtual machines between physical hosts.
Conclusion
Like big organizations, now SMBs can also implement a virtualization strategy. Today, the virtualization technology is the key element for the IT strategy for all businesses. It helps SMBs to build an IT infrastructure with enterprise class potential with appropriate ROI.
By: pirumandal
