| Virtualization moves down
market
23 February, 2006
By Paul Weinberg
Virtualization solutions that were primarily used in the
high-end Unix and mainframe enterprise space are coming down-market
into the mid-sized organizations where Windows-based platforms,
applications and x86 servers are ubiquitous.
The ability to consolidate applications and server workloads
for several machines down to a single server is an attractive
proposition for companies seeking to save money on IT maintenance,
staffing, power and physical space, stated Charles King, an
industry analyst and the principal analyst for the Hayward,
Calif.-based Pund-IT.
"If you are a middle range company with 300 or 400 or
500 employees, it is not unusual to have dozens, scores or
even hundreds of x86 servers. There is a real problem in the
mid-market with server sprawl."
Currently, the x86 runs at about 15 to 25 per cent utilization
(that is, the percentage of processing power), compared to
70 per cent for Unix based systems and 80 to 90 per cent for
mainframe systems, stated King.
Vendors like Hewlett-Packard say that virtualization should
help midmarket organizations better manage workloads and peak
periods for applications running on x86s.
It is the appearance of formerly high-end applications such
as data warehousing and business intelligence in mid-sized
organizations that is creating a need and demand for virtual
machines to handle the workload on the server, said Steve
Shaw, business development manager in HP's business critical
systems.
"The impetus to do it is through the availability of
software like Oracle and SAP that have historically been in
the larger enterprises." Shaw sees midmarket customers
going straight to the virtual server technology rather than
buy a host of servers. "In a lot of cases what they want
is the simplicity of managing IT."
In anticipation of the growing interest in virtualization
both Intel and AMD will be introducing Windows-based virtual
hardware server technologies this year.
The major software products designed to manage virtualization
on an x86 server come under the VMware brand name. They can
be used in both Windows and non-Windows environments.
Competing products include Microsoft's Virtual Server which
is primarily for the Microsoft Windows Server environment
and the open source based Xen.
Microsoft Virtual Server will also handle Linux applications,
"but that is not [Microsoft's] area of expertise,"
said Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the San Jose-Calif.
based Enderle Group.
"Microsoft is an upgrade and test tool, while VMWare
is often used for a full production environment where you
have multiple platforms, multiple servers and flip between
Unix and Linux."
John Phelps, vice president for research in servers at the
Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc, says that virtualization
will not represent a major adjustment in terms of new skill
sets and training for channel partners.
"It requires some training to understand virtualization
because of the way you configure it and so on. But it is not
a huge leap."
Phelps expects a number of software tools to come on stream
that will further enhance the virtualization process and represent
a lucrative business opportunity for vendors.
How far down-market where most of North America's businesses
reside can we expect virtualization to travel?
"As we go into the next decade it will be hard to find
a desktop or server that is not running on a virtual machine
of some kind," explained Enderle.
At the same time Enderle concedes that few small businesses
will hop on the virtualization bandwagon anytime soon.
Unless they are in the IT industry, small businesses with
as few as 10 employees lack the staffing and skill sets to
manage anything as complex as an in-house server, he said.
"You go into a small business and you are not likely
to find somebody that understands the desktop, let alone how
to manage and maintain a server."
Enderle himself relies on a third party hosting company to
do server based applications. From a maintenance perspective
it is rather expensive for a small business to manage its
own server, he said.
Typically, the hosting company will manage applications for
a number of small businesses on a single server.
"The small business will not know if it is using a virtual
machine as opposed to a server."
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