June 2nd, 2009
Virtualization is not virtual machine software
Virtualization is something that has been around for quite a long time. It has been a staple of the mainframe world for well over 30 years. It has been part of the midrange systems world for over 20 years. It has been emerging in the world of industry standard systems for over a decade. Virtualization is a very broad topic and yet many of the suppliers coming to me seem to think that one part (virtual machine software) of one layer (virtual processing software) of a seven layer model (see Sorting out the different layers of virtualization for more information) equals the totality of virtualization. Why, do you suppose, is that?
Virtual machine software is a powerful tool, if used correctly. Its use can also create a number of intractable problems as well. There are times this software is deployed when it would have been far more efficient to deploy operating system virtualization and partitioning software. I’m sure that the folks at Parallels would love to present benchmarks showing the benefits of that approach to anyone who will make the time to listen.
Virtual machine migration software combined with orchestration and automation software are often used rather than technology that may be more efficient, clustering software. If the organization’s goal was high availability, it may have been better to consider software, such as Stratus’ Avance, or a fault tolerant server, such as those offered by Stratus.
What I find the most interesting is that some organizations start deploying virtual servers without also planning out a complete environment that includes virtual access to those servers, virtual networking for those servers, virtual storage for those servers and a management environment that makes it easily possible to see what’s really happening.
Could it be because the players in the virtual machine software space (Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat and the Linux community, and VMware) seem to harp on their products in that space? Is it that a completely virtualized environment is likely to be a very complex environment? What do you think?
Daniel Kusnetzky is a member of the senior management team of The 451 Group. He is responsible for research and publications on a broad array of technology topics. He examines emerging technology trends, vendor strategies, research and development issues, and end-user integration requirements. You can follow Dan on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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