The key to server virtual integration: management automation

In addition to hearing such things as “reducing costs and improving resource utilization”, slogans promoted by various virtualization technology vendors also heard “reducing human input”. Words like that. Recently, some insiders have questioned server virtualization "reducing manpower input" and said that "automation" will be the key to virtual integration.

The reduction in the “labor cost” investment will be mainly due to the reduction in the workload. The vice president of research at IDC's data center strategy department believes that virtualization will not achieve a significant reduction in workload, and that the integration of server functions through virtualization will even increase the workload.

At IDC Directions 2009, IDC Directions 2009, IDC, a market and technology research organization, discusses with consumers and customers strategies and plans for the next few years, including how to defend against this severe financial turmoil. .

Michelle Bailey, vice president of research at IDC's Trends Strategy, points out that the need to cut costs is growing year by year. She said that about 40% of IT managers surveyed by IDC said that cost savings are their biggest concern.

Virtualization is often seen as a panacea for solving cost problems, consolidating applications on some low-utilization servers into one. But Bailey pointed out that there are only five virtual machines per server on average, and it is expected to reach eight by 2012.

As far as the current situation is concerned, it is a dream to integrate dozens of servers into one machine. More importantly, according to IDC's research results, in 2012, each server is equipped with an average of eight virtual machines, and 100 million new servers will be added at that time, and "they still need people to manage."

Bailey believes that the problem is that server management tools can't keep up with the growth of servers.

"If we don't increase the cost of server management tools, we will see the fire of virtualization go out, because people can't manage all the virtual machines by human resources," she said. "Automation is the key."

More flexible data centers

IDC said that the size of enterprise data centers is shrinking, but the main reason is not virtualization, but the enterprise data center has gradually shifted from self-built to outsourcing. By 2012, the enterprise data center ratio will be reduced from the current 77 percentage points to 65.

Hosting the computing work of the enterprise to other outsourcing companies, the ratio of such data centers will increase from 9% to 16% by 2012; the data center ratios for smaller markets and enterprises will be Increased from the current 14% to 19%.

Therefore, the design of the data center needs to be more flexible, rather than large scale, which results in a large excess capacity - a common problem in the previous data center - built a 100,000 square foot data center. In fact, it is enough to use only 5,000 square feet. IDC recommends building a 5,000-square-foot modular design with a small, repeatable capacity-enhancing data center.

Management Tools Articles

Another discussion focused on the change in the status of the hypervisor. Al Gillen, vice president of research at IDC Systems Software, believes that deploying virtualization is no longer a patent for large companies with a large number of servers to be consolidated, and it has found its place in mid-sized data centers.

The price of Hypervisor is no longer considered, as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has announced that it will offer its Hyper-V free of charge, and other companies have followed suit. Therefore, the price of the hypervisor is no longer important. IDC said: Management tools are gradually becoming the value-added point of the business.

During the discussion, Gillen told an audience, "From now on, it doesn't matter which manufacturer's hypervisor you use. What matters is what you can do with those management tools."

Gillen said that from the release of System Center Virtual Manager from Microsoft, the industry has recognized this. Microsoft's management tools can manage competitors' software, such as VMware or Xen's hypervisors.

He said to his audience: "Who would have thought that Microsoft and Red Hat could discuss interoperability at the hypervisor level!"

Therefore, the real value is embedded in the system management software. . However, he also pointed out that system management software still needs improvement.

Gillen said that to be truly efficient, system management tools also need to increase the ability to manage online and offline system images, understand the operating system and workload, and provide the appropriate supply.

Other features that system management software must have, including self-provisioning, maintaining service levels, supporting system-oriented architecture commitment, redundancy, resiliency, and recoverability, he added: Features must also be cost effective.