virtualisation: the impact of technology on information

Virtualisation, The Impact Of Technology On Information Management

Dr Kevin McIsaacIBRS

kmcisaac@ibrs.com.au

IBRS: Who We Are

An Australian Company That Provides Research And Advice To IT And Business Managers In Australian And New Zealand Organisations.

Overview

Virtualisation Overview Vendor And Technology Landscape What You Must Know For Your

Information Management Projects

Virtualisation Overview

What is Virtualisation? Why is it the most important trend in

IT infrastructure? Technology 101

What is Virtualisation? A way to loosely couple “workload” to “hardware” by

Making all devices look the same Reduces diversity and simplifies the environment Enables change, i.e., applications, or data, can be moved around

Making a single server look like many servers While still providing robust isolation and resource control Enables consolidation which increases hardware utilisation and lower TCO

Making many storage units look like a single unit Hides storage complexity, simplifying storage management Enables policy based storage management

Today it is all things to all vendors, beware!

Server virtualization & consolidation are CIO’s #1 & #2 priorities - Goldman Sachs Survey

Why Is It So Important? It is the most important infrastructure

trend in the last 7 years & the next 7 Totally changes IT infrastructure

Today it enables capabilities that support business needs affordable

HA, DR, CO, CoD, rapid provisioning All on commodity hardware

By 2015 commodity infrastructure becomes a unified system

Remarkably like the old M/F Resources managed by policy to SLAs Virtualisation is the data centre O/S

By 2015 You Will Buy A “Datacenter in a Box”. Virtualisation Is Essential To Harness the Power

Virtual HW

Virtual HW

Virtual HW

Virtual HW

Resource Pool

Virtual HW

Virtual HW

Real hardware, CPUs, Memory, Disk

Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)

Virtual Machine (VM)CPU, Memory Disk

Operating System

Virtual Machine (VM)CPU, Memory Disk

Operating System

Virtual Machine (VM)CPU, Memory Disk

Operating System

App App App App App App

Technology 101 Server Virtualisation

Already mainstream Hypervisor now free

Storage Virtualisation Some benefits but take caution

Virtual Desktop (VDI) Probably just a niche like Citrix

Application Virtualisation The next important desktop

enablerThe Hypervisor Is A Commodity And The Management Tools Are The Differentiators

Vendor & Technology Landscape

Who Are The Market Leaders? Separating The Facts From The Hype

Who Are The Market Leaders?

Server Virtualisation (IDC) ’07: 35% of new servers virtualised

Implies 90% of all new workloads! Projecting 52% in ‘08

50% of firms using it now. 90%+ in the next 18 months.

App-V &ThinApp emerging in App Virtualisation market

Citrix still strong in Display Virtualisation

Many challenges in moving beyond this

How Does Microsoft Entry Change The Market?

Separating The Facts From The Hype

Virtualisation is the hot buzz word, BEWARE of vendors product hype!!! Server Virtualisation – VMware is mature and ready for use

VMware is the clear leader, most organisations should use this strategically Now the hypervisor is free, MS’s major advantage has been neutralised

MS will struggle to displace VMware Technically inferior, 18month to 3 years behind. Will try to change the goal posts to dynamic IT. Not achievable for most

Open source is not the answer either Xen is probably defunct KVM will be the open source choice

Storage - Thin provisioning is the next key storage virtualisation Network based virtualisation has limited traction IP storage will grow rapidly, especially in a Virtualised environment

Virtual Desktop (VDI) - beware vendor hype Many small pilots but very few in production (1 or 2 in Australia) Cost benefits do not stack up, move to stateless PC architecture instead

What You Must Know

The benefits The questions you need to ask

The Benefits

Lower TCO Simple, low cost HA and DR Rapid provisioning Continuous operations Capacity on Demand

The Questions To Ask Is my application suitable?

If not why not? Challenge the status quo? Push back on vendors! What are the savings, benefits and risks from using it?

Look for lower, shared server costs, affordable HA & DR, agility What can I do now that I could not afford before?

More quickly provide new services/applications Do we have the skills? How will operations change?

Where can I source these skills. Can I use consultant to build & transfer?

How does this impact my outsourcer? Do they provide it? What is their cost model? Is it flexible?

How does this new infrastructure get funded?