Virtualisation: from server and desktop to the network

Momentum is gathering apace thanks to the cloud and a drive toward efficiency and security, as Brian J Dooley finds

By Brian J Dooley, Auckland | Wednesday, 10 March 2010
If deployed correctly, a virtualised environment stands to be more secure than its traditional physical counterpart. “An example of this is the Data Loss Prevention technology that EMC’s RSA division is pioneering,” says McCullum. “Similar advantages are available with backup. Few organisations can continue to back up data the way they have in the physical world.”

Organisations can benefit from virtualisation as much on the desktop as on the server. In desktop virtualisation with VMware View, for example, value for an organisation comes from greater efficiencies in management, security, availability, control — and potentially a longer lifecycle between desktop device deployments.

“Resellers need to be familiar with the opportunity that virtualisation presents for both themselves and their customers,” says McCullum. “When implementing virtualisation for their customers, resellers should be recommending solutions that integrate with, and extend the capabilities of, their virtualisation solution.“

HP is working with CIOs around New Zealand and around the world to help address issues of IT resource sprawl. “Virtualisation is a key component of HP’s broader strategy for addressing this,” says New Zealand storage and servers business manager Jeff Healey. HP’s strategy is the HP Converged Infrastructure.

“A lot of companies have forayed into virtual machines to introduce efficiency and flexibility, often beginning with a few servers and applications,” says Healey. “Compelling ROI has then led to new ad hoc projects, then more ad hoc projects. Before long, thousands of virtual servers flood the environment. The most important recent development has been a shift from vendors and customers alike, away from this ad hoc approach to introducing virtualised infrastructure towards a more holistic and considered approach to the entire infrastructure.”

Virtualisation can and should have a positive impact on IT infrastructure, if it is implemented as part of a broader infrastructure convergence strategy. But with so much interest in virtual environments, companies can forget that every virtual server must run on a physical system.

“When virtualisation springs up without a master plan, businesses wind up with two sets of tools to manage two separate infrastructures, the physical and the virtual,” says Healey. “Chaos ensues, and the savings of initial virtualisation projects are swallowed up.”

While a growing number of companies deploy server virtualisation to gain operational savings, the cost of networking virtual servers continues to climb. To reap the benefits of their virtualised environment, companies also need to invest in additional networking equipment or use interconnect technology that can allocate bandwidth across network interface card connections.

According to Microsoft’s local technical advisor Stuart Fox, there are three significant, recent developments in virtualisation technology. These are: