News

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June 2011 - Volume 1, Issue 1

Yes, it sounds rather fantastic. But Server Virtualization is real, and it’s an amazing innovation you’ll want to know about, because it lets you shift your focus from maintenance to efficiency and innovation.

About 70% of a typical IT budget in a non-virtualized environment goes towards maintenance. An automated environment built on virtualization let’s you respond to market changes and user demands faster and more efficiently. You’ll see significant reductions in the number of servers, server maintenance, datacenter space, power, and cooling.

It lets you ...

• Run multiple virtual machines on one physical server and reduce the amount of hardware.
• Improve desktop management without interruptions in service.
• Eliminate planned downtime and provide immediate recovery from unplanned issues.

To get up to speed, we’ve included a link below to a short InfoWorld video that does an excellent job of giving you the top line.

http://youtu.be/p11lJOnALS4

Then see the two articles below on VMware and Hyper V, the two leading products in this category. And finally, you’ll see an article that does a feature-by-feature comparison of the two.

VMWARE VSPHERE™

VMware® Server provides a stable, easy-to-use hosted virtualization platform that supports a broad range of operating systems and hardware. It offers a web-based management interface to provide a consistent experience for Windows and Linux users. VMware Server uses its virtualization capabilities in the latest hardware to deliver higher performance, and lets you ...

• Provision additional servers in minutes without investing in new hardware.
• Run multiple operating systems on the same physical server.
• Move virtual machines from one physical server to another without re-configuration.
• Easily evaluate software in ready-to-run virtual machines, without installation and configuration.
• Simplify IT testing of patches, new applications and operating systems by allowing systems administrators to test in a secure virtual machine environment and be able to roll back to a clean.
• Enterprise-class product support available.

Engineered to make your job easier.

You can easily move virtual machines to VMware vSphere™ 4. Multiple virtual machines can be run simultaneously on a single server, and if one virtual machine crashes, all others are left untouched.

What’s more, VMware Server makes it easy to back-up, move or copy files. A new Web-based user interface allows for more efficient management of your systems. Or machine consoles can be accessed remotely, independent of the web-based management interface. And you’ll find that it ...

• Optimizes power consumption.
• Allows dynamic allocation of storage based on need, for higher efficiency.
• Provides advanced networking features.
• Gives you automated restart (within minutes) of VMs in the event of server failure.
• Creates and enforces security zones that are maintained even during migration of servers.
• Allows the use of 3rd party security products.

VMware is available for companies of all sizes at varying costs (see “comparison article” below for approximations—for reference only). Adding to the cost, any operating system licenses, application licenses and licenses for one or more copies of vcenterserver—all at varying costs as well.

MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 holds the update to Microsoft's virtualization technology, Hyper-V. It's designed to help organizations reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 provides better energy efficiency and performance by reducing power consumption and lowering overhead costs. It easily plugs into existing IT environments, and there's a minimal learning curve because IT pros can leverage their existing and skills with Microsoft virtualization products and their knowledge the Microsoft community. In addition, Microsoft provides comprehensive support. You'll get these powerful benefits ...

• Consume up to 18% less power. Windows Server 2008 R2 lets you lower the power states of processors, and even turn off individual cores when the server is at low utilization.
• Reduce branch-office-network bandwidth up to 40%. BranchCache lets you cache huge, bandwidth-hogging files locally.
• Help improve uptime and productivity. Live migration lets you move virtual machines among servers with no downtime, and clustering wizards help you set up a cluster in three steps.
• Cut back on additional software costs. Besides the built-in hypervisor, Windows Server 2008 R2 includes DirectAccess, which lets you eliminate virtual private networks and manage remote computers as if they're in the office.
• Flexible storage support. Hyper-V Server offers direct attach storage, networked storage, and Dynamic VM Storage which allows for hot plug-in and removal of storage.
• More efficiency. You'll have intelligent allocation of space, based on resource needs.

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