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February 2015
PURCHASING SERVERS
IN A VIRTUALIZED WORLD
With virtualization taking over networks, storage and servers, the softwaredefined data center is on the rise. This inevitably affects IT buying decisions.
BY CLIVE LONGBOTTOM
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thats the accepted line when the discussion turns to virtualizations effect on purchasing. Not only that, but IT will also
be told that software manages everything else. Applications
needing more resources can just have them applied in real
time via the resource pools; the need for systems engineering is lessened to the point of not being an issue at all.
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RATIONALIZING APPLICATIONS
Many organizations, when carrying out an application discovery activity, find that they have multiple applications
executing the same overall function. Rationalizing applications to a single vendor can make your negotiating position
much strongermore seats can push your contract over
into a lower cost-per-seat bracket.
Look at all of the applications that you will be retaining.
Are any of them cyclical? For example, if you are running
payroll on-site, then it is likely that this will only be running
once per week or once per month. How about accounts payable? Do you only run those once per month?
Understanding the cyclical nature of certain applications
can really help with regard to virtualization. If the applications can be made counter-cyclical (for example, running
payroll on the last Friday of the month, with accounts payable being run on the second Friday of every month) they
will not be fighting for resources, and can share the same
pool more effectively.
Even more important is determining whether the application is suitable for a scale-out virtualized environment. It
might be better served by running on specialized silicon
maybe on an IBM Power CPU or on Nvidia GPUs. A lowlevel workload could use a low-power Intel Atom processor
or ARM chip. The platformwhatever that may bemust
work in conjunction with the rest of the virtualized environment. You dont want to create siloed hardware islands,
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There will be areas where a pure scale-out modelbased
on using low-cost componentsmakes sense. However, for
many, the scale out is better served through the purchasing
of converged (pre-built) systems. Here, the likes of Cisco,
Nutanix, Dell, IBM and HP provide systems that have a mix
of pre-engineered CPU, storage and network resources that
are fully engineered into a single system. This converged infrastructure means that the interplay between the resource
variables is optimized, and that provisioning of the system
can be carried out in hours rather than days or weeks.
Many of these converged systems allow for the inclusion
of different workload CPU systems through the addition of
blades or bricks into the system. These are based on GPUs
or low-powered CPUs. IBM, through its zEnterprise, offers a combined mainframe/Power capability; through its
Power-based PureFlex systems, Intel-based systems can be
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added (through Lenovo, now that IBM has offloaded its x86
server business).
Converged infrastructure systems will provide some
degree of storage, but many will need additional storage or
storage aimed at specific needs. For example, certain big
data projects are better served through the purchasing of a
dedicated appliancesomething along the lines of a Terradata, IBM PureData or Oracle Big Data Appliance, the latter
of which adds not only storage but also high-speed analytic
intelligence to the platform.
Other storage will change due to the impact of flashbased systems, from vendors such as Pure Storage, Violin
Memory and SolidFire. The incumbents, including EMC,
NetApp and HDS, are responding, and software-defined
storage will continue to gain attention.
At the networking level, virtualization allows for the
bonding of physical links, which eliminates the physical
limitations on available bandwidth. However, managing
bonded physical network interface cards to provide highbandwidth logical links requires high degrees of network
intelligence. Although software-defined networking (SDN)
is aimed at abstracting that need for intelligence away from
the network equipment to a software level running on virtual, commoditized servers, it is far more likely that the
future will remain hybrid. This would be include OpenFlow
software working with intelligent network operating systems such as Ciscos IOS and Junipers JUNOS to ensure
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PERSISTING NEEDS
You will still be required to monitor, manage and automate the virtual environment. Cloud-based systems, such
as OpenStack, CloudStack and Eucalyptus, allow for a major
functional step up from basic virtualization. Private clouds
contain the capability to dynamically apply and remove
resources from workloads as required. Workloads can
also be moved around the virtual environment in a private
cloud. Hybrid cloud, which combines internal and external
cloud platforms, allows for peaks in resource requirement
to be met by external pools, enabling the initial architecting
of the platform to be pitched at a high utilization levelthe
entire peak requirement can be paid for on an as-used
basis.
However, these options still require advanced systems
management. Some of this may come from existing systems management tools, such as IBMs Tivoli portfolio, HP
Softwares systems management portfolio or Dell Quests
tools. It is worth looking at what is now coming through as
more mature virtual-/cloud-based management toolsCAs
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Quocirca and has been an ITC industry analyst for more than 15
years. Trained as a chemical engineer, he worked on anti-cancer
drugs, car catalysts and fuel cells before moving in to IT. He has
worked on many office automation projects, as well as Control of
Substances Hazardous to Health, document management and
knowledge management projects.
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rkitchens@techtarget.com
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