|
|
|
|
|
VMware
Access the Power of Virtualization with VMWare ABS recognizes that since the beginning of the computing era, a critical challenge for business managers and IT managers alike has been how to drive the highest return for the information systems investment. This challenge has become particularly thorny since the advent of server-based computing and the proliferation of desktop and laptop personal computers. One of the key frustrations for IT managers deploying and supporting these systems as well as the financial officers writing checks for these systems has been the relatively low utilization of the server, storage, network, and personal computing assets. It is a rare individual who can "max out" the computing capacity of their personal workstation. It is very typical in IT operations to have an application burying its server and storage capacity while other applications run at very low utilizations rates, spiking only occasionally during a work day, month, or quarter. It is doubly frustrating for data center managers to have to deploy more IT assets to support their "hot" application while they know other resources, while needed to run the business, are almost never running at peak capacity. The people who have to find the capital to buy these additional data center assets are no happier than the people who have to deploy and manage them. There has to be a better way…fortunately for ABS’ clients, there is a better way and it is through VMware, a technology we use in our own operations to achieve the efficiency, availability, and asset management we would like to deploy for our clients. VMware is a way to finally unlock the idling IT assets in your infrastructure by allowing resources to be shared across your organization according to the needs of the business, not the physical connection between hardware and software. VMware can allow users to run multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same computer at the same time increasing the usage and flexibility of hardware and software investments. Large mainframe computers have been doing this for years, but now the ability to decouple physical dependence between hardware and software exists for clients running their businesses with server farms and desktop computers. "The VMware approach to virtualization inserts a thin layer of software directly on the computer hardware or on a host operating system. This software layer creates virtual machines and contains a virtual machine monitor or "hypervisor" that allocates hardware resources dynamically and transparently so that multiple operating systems can run concurrently on a single physical computer without even knowing it. However, virtualizing a single physical computer is just the beginning. VMware offers a robust virtualization platform that can scale across hundreds of interconnected physical computers and storage devices to form an entire virtual infrastructure." Fortunately, the power of VMware and virtualization does not stop at the server or the desktop. VMware creates the opportunity for ABS clients to create a Virtual Infrastructure, which is essentially the dynamic mapping of physical IT resources to meet changing business needs, be it server, storage, or network resources. This allows for aggregation of assets into a single, robust, very cost efficient infrastructure that is far more highly utilized than a non-virtualized infrastructure that will inherently have hot-spots as well as idle-spots throughout the operations versus shared pools of resources. Additionally, recovery from an unplanned outage is by definition much quick through dynamic reallocation of resources available in the virtualized infrastructure. The benefits of using VMware across an IT infrastructure are clear. VMware reports that customers who have adopted a virtual infrastructure operating environment report the following dramatic benefits: ABS sees the evolution to the virtual infrastructure and one of the most compelling business opportunities of the current business cycle. We see VMware as leading virtualization platform in the industry and we see VMware as the way our clients can start to drive higher returns from current and planned information systems investments.
|
