(from Channelpro SMB)

Choosing a Virtualization Server

Experts weigh in with pointers for selecting the right virtualization hardware

Building efficient virtualization solutions requires server hardware with specific characteristics, such as additional memory, multicore processors, and high-capacity IO. Some hardware makers are even offering “virtualization ready” servers with multicore processors and embedded hypervisors. The result is that VARs and vendors alike are ruggedizing their hardware to stand up to the rigors of virtualization. Here’s why.

STORAGE

“The sooner you think about storage the better,” says Mark Peters, senior analyst focusing on storage at research firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). “People find they need more performance and capacity about 99 times out of 100. You’re going to need more storage, and you’ll drive it much harder than before.”

While you can rely on physical storage inside your server to support the virtual machines on that server, you lose many of virtualization’s biggest benefits: moving applications when needed, fault tolerance, and fast backup. So to get the most value from virtualization, use shared storage.

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(from PCWorld)

Microsoft to Equip Windows 8 With Virtualization Hosting

The next version of the Microsoft’s desktop OS, code-named “Windows 8″, will include the ability to run other OSes in virtualized containers, the company announced by blog Wednesday (Sept. 7).

Previously, Microsoft’s virtualization hosting software, called Hyper-V, could only be installed on machines running Windows Server. Users who needed to run virtual machines on their Windows 7 desktop computers used third-party software, such as Oracle’s Virtual Box or VMware Workstation.

“In building Windows 8 we worked to enable Hyper-V … to function on the client OS as well,” wrote Mathew John, Microsoft program manager on the Hyper-V team. “In brief, Hyper-V lets you run more than one 32-bit or 64-bit x86 operating system at the same time on the same computer. Instead of working directly with the computer’s hardware, the operating systems run inside of a virtual machine (VM).”

Microsoft sees this new functionality as being initially beneficial for developers and administrators. Developers could test their programs within a virtual environment without worrying about crashing their own OSes. Administrators could standardize their virtual machine infrastructure on Hyper-V, Microsoft suggested.

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(From InformationWeek) Could the iPad soon be as common a sight on construction jobs as the hard hat?

It will if the industry follows the example of the Silicon Valley Builders Group (SVBG). The 100-person construction firm’s technology approach is producing what its executives believe is a true competitive advantage in an age-old industry–an edge that has helped SVBG hit the $100 million annual revenue milestone in just five years.

Roughly two-third of the SVBG team works almost exclusively in the field, and they’re not toting laptops: They operate entirely with iPhones and iPads, primarily using the cloud collaboration app Soonr.

The 35 or so folks in SVBG’s actual office work on thin clients; the company’s infrastructure is entirely virtualized, with no desktops or latops in sight. SVBG does offer project managers an allowance to purchase a PC for home use so they can remotely access their virtual machines, though it doesn’t provide any hardware support. Aside from a small server room on-site, their data is kept almost entirely in Amazon’s EC2 cloud.

The mix of mobile devices, desktop virtualization, cloud applications, and cloud data allows CIO Shaun Coleman to operate as a one-man IT department, aside from outside vendors and a part-time staffer. Coleman’s no stranger to virtualization: He came from VMware, and SVBG’s founders previously worked at Sun Microsystems.

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Virtualization is the term we use to describe when we are abstracting, or acquiring, one set of technology from another. Server virtualization, for example, is the abstraction of the server instance from the physical hardware that it’s running on. Storage virtualization is the abstraction of the physical media (hard disks or solid state) from the attaching servers. Like other forms of virtualization, this generic definition will change depending on the vendor and the use case.

Almost all storage systems provide some type of abstraction between the user and the physical devices. Even logical volume managers provide some level of virtualization. However most legacy storage systems require that you create volumes or RAID groups by specifying exactly which drives and how many drives will be associated with each group.

While there is some “virtualness” to this process, because your application now addresses the group and not the individual drive, this does not make storage easier to manage. The goals of what we call storage virtualization are to make the process of managing storage, especially the provisioning process, simpler and the use of that storage more efficient.

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