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Jan 30 2008   10:41PM GMT

Will virtualization end world hunger, bring down gas prices…?



Posted by: Ryan Shopp
Virtualization, DataCenter

Well, the short answer is no.  BUT, I do believe virtualization is the key to the possibility of a “lights out data center”.

I know what I’m about to say is going to be a gross oversimplification, but the point I’m trying to make here is all the hype and buzz is justified!

Once you have your data center equipped and architected with the necessary virtualization capable infrastructure (e.g.,physical hardware, interfaces, cables, power, HVAC) you are on your way through the power of virtualization!

Five basic steps (I know, very oversimplified):

  1. Determine how much infrastructure capacity you need
  2. Review what you can re-use and what new infrastructure you will need to purchase.
  3. Select your virtualization providers
  4. Deploy this abstraction layer
  5. Make sure you have all the necessary management/automation products you need.

From one location now you should be able to completely manage the data center without anyone stepping foot onsite.  Well almost…

The only times you will need to do something manually in the data center (aka have a human switch on the lights) will be when infrstructure fails, you need more capacity or you want to swap out newer/more efficient “green” infrastructure.

That means anytime you want to:

  • Install/Update/Configure an application - “check”
  • Check Backup/Restore anything - “check”
  • Allocate bandwidth - “check”
  • Direct traffic flow - “check”
  • this list goes on…all from the comfort on your laptop.

Now for smaller companies, don’t fret - I honestly believe we are coming upon a time where you can outsource your entire IT through going to a web page and selecting what you need from the catalog (think building a Dell computer but now for your entire IT).  The provider in turn will ask you for key deliverables (e.g., your internally developed applictions, list of users for all necessary productivity tools, where to send the employee computer/laptop).  On the back side they have the infrastructure and software supply chain where the laptop magically shows up and everything works.

Now the tough part is within all this virtualization hype there are a variety of approaches or technologies an enterprise can take/use.  How do we make sense of all this?  That’s where we will pick up next time…

Flame on if you wish…but my personal view is very optimistic once we get through all this yelling (aka buzz & hype) on who/which/what technologies and approaches are best.

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Shenning  |   Feb 5 2008   10:30PM GMT

I share your optimism on the power and possibilities of virtualization technology, however, while virtualization certainly can do great things for data centers especially in terms of cost savings, it can also make potential problems more difficult to uncover and resolve, due to the complexity that this technology adds to an already complex data center. In the non-virtualized world, IT Operations is already up against the wall with respect to systems management, yet virtualized environments considerably complicate the problem. Now you are dealing with the host server and O/S, the hypervisor, the virtual machines, the guest O/S in each virtual machine and the applications running in the VMs. Ouch… Figuring out the source of problems was hard enough in the non-virtualized world. Simply throwing more people at the problem as Operations has done in the past is not going to scale with this level of complexity, and IT budgets, which are already 70+% labor and flat won’t support that anyway. That is why IT executives implementing virtualized production environments need to seriously consider a new breed of systems management solutions that use real time analytics to reduce manual efforts in the problem resolution process and enhance static threshold based monitoring and alerting. These solutions can finally allow IT to get out of reactive firefighting and become truly proactive.


 

ChandlerD  |   Jan 3 2009   6:31AM GMT

World hunger has been a continuous problem over the last hundred years, and it has been exacerbated in some places during the last fifty years – like in Haiti. Citizens of this island nation in the Caribbean have been resorting to eating dirt cakes, literally packing dirt into cookie size shapes and eating them, exposing them to all sorts of toxins and potential infections. Just last month, there was a resolution that went before the United Nations over whether or not food was a basic human right. Nearly every member voted for it – seven members were absent – and the final vote came in at 180 – 1. Only one country opposed the measure, and that country is one that is in no position to say anything, being that over 10% of its citizens live in poverty – wonder whom? The United States of America was the sole nation to vote against the idea that human beings have the fundamental human right to food. Now, there are obviously good reasons why the US delegate voted it down – something about the government not liking the wording of the resolution – but it still happened. Just be thankful this new year that you have options like payday loans, and options like whether to go to Safeway or Albertsons.

For more about the UN and world news, read this article at the <strong><a title="Some can't get enough to eat this Christmas, be thankful if you have food and access to payday loans" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/23/some-cant-get-enough-to-eat-this-christmas-be-thankful-if-you-have-food-and-access-to-payday-loans/" rel="nofollow">payday loans</a><strong> blog.