Virtualization Background

I have a few years of experience using virtual servers.  Early on, virtualization was so complicated to implement and maintain that it only made sense for those organizations with the most dire need for software segmentation or other complex architectural needs.  Virtualization is so easy now that implementation is almost an afterthought.  I am currently implementing several virtual servers on a massive grid as part of a major virtualization effort at my organization.  Virtualization has definitely come a long ways since my earliest experiences, and the value it can provide to me and my coworkers is now much more obvious.

Direct Benefits of Virtualization

Virtualization is expected to directly provide me and my coworkers with the following benefits:

1.  Easy-to-manage future hardware upgrades.  The virtual machine operations folks can just add processor power, disk space or RAM to our configuration instantly at any time, at a near zero cost compared to the complexity involved in roll out a new physical server in our very large server environment (many thousands of servers).  Conversely, if a piece of physical hardware that is connected into the grid dies, it can be swapped out without shutting down any of the virtual servers, yielding a far greater “hardware uptime” end-user experience.  The hardware still dies just like it always does, but it doesn’t affect the performance of the software in as significant a way as if a single system dies and takes some application down.  For those who have never had a direct hardware failure, remember virtualization when it happens to you (and it will happen one day!)

2.  Easy-to-redeploy software configurations.  If one of these virtual machines were to suffer a data loss or software misconfiguration that would require a rebuild, we can rebuild and redeploy the entire server in minutes instead of hours or days.  If we need other “firmware” changes, those are equally easier on the hardware folks to implement.

3.  Other logistics are faster and more easily controlled by IT staff.  For example, relocating the virtual machines to a different physical location can be achieved easily and without physically moving the old hardware to the new location.  Finally, software upgrades and patches are easier for IT to roll out.

Management and Indirect Benefits

Those are some of the benefits I will realize that will improve my ability to deploy custom software solutions to those servers vs. our old physical server configuration.  There are far more benefits than that to the operators and upper management, such as the cost savings of having the minimum necessary virtual hardware added to each application or project.  The larger your virtual grid becomes, the more this cost savings will outweigh the overhard costs and ultimately with a multi-thousand server grid, I can’t imagine everyone wouldn’t be impressed with the new bottom line.

The Performance Cost of Virtualization

Virtualization has a performance cost on the hardware due to the overhead of the virtualization management software.  This overhead would have a huge effect if you had a large application and only a few pieces of hardware, and you were hammering the hardware to max capacity before virtualization.  However, if like our organization you can get a big grid of hardware going, that overhead cost will be vastly outweighed by the virtual-hardware-minimizing savings noted above.  If you have a lot of smaller apps that need their own distinct servers, virtualization is definitely worth consideration.  I would even prefer hosting my own apps in a third-party virtual environment to having to manage my own hardware, because I know it’s so much easier to manage virtual servers that I will get way better and cheaper service via that compared with paying for my own hardware.

Systems Architecture Considerations

Virtualization is the most technically correct way to implement hardware and software from a systems architecture standpoint.  Consider the following scenario: if I purchase hardware, no matter how I choose to upgrade the software, I am stuck with that hardware configuration’s limitations because it is directly controlled by the software.  Contrast this with a virtual environment, where the hardware can be upgraded and configured independently of the software.  This allows for legacy systems to either be emulated or otherwise virtualized and kept functional far beyond the original hardware’s lifespan.  Furthermore, the latest software and hardware can be implemented basically immediately with little cost to at least test the software, versus trying to purchase an entire new physical hardware configuration. 

New Ways to Solve Problems

Finally, virtual servers allow for the consideration of possibilities far outside the restrictions imposed by traditional physical server environments.  One of the future enhancements I may propose for our virtual grid is the ability to have tons of client systems automatically test various components for us, so that we can know right away if a specific type of configuration will be incompatible with our software.  Organizations can realize substantial savings and time-to-market improvement from a grid of virtual QA tester machines in different configurations, and that’s just one random idea out of a whole new industry made possible by a virtual server grid.

 

Devin Moore is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight from Devin Moore and other experts, please visit www.insightcommunity.com.