Veering into Virtualization

With the increasing challenges of maintaining numerous servers, coupled with the high cost of keeping a robust data center, small and medium businesses are now seeking alternative solutions to keep their IT systems and infrastructure less costly while still being efficient, and at a healthy pace against competition. This competitive atmosphere in business has led to more SMBs seeing virtualization, an emerging cost-efficient and space-saving technology, as away to innovate and further their IT systems at a fraction of the cost.

The multi-faceted advantages offered by virtualization are real and attainable even if you run a small business and since your competitors may not have discovered the benefits of the technology yet you may gain a significant competitive advantage.

According to recent survey conducted by IT firm Acronis, a huge number of SMBs around the world are planning to adopt server virtualization in 2012. Results show the general interest in adopting virtual machines are moving at a faster pace with SMBs as compared to large enterprises. Most of the surveyed IT managers in 16 different countries predicted that 29% of their servers will be virtualized by the end of the year, presenting a possible huge growth rate of 21%.

But is the fairly new virtualization technology worth any company's bucks? And can the SMBs easily adopt the changes virtualization will bring to a any company's IT infrastructure? And what about the risks?

WHY VIRTUALI ZE?

Lower operational cost is, undeniably, a leading factor why SMBs are jumping into the bandwagon. "When we look at virtualization, the primary driver is cost," says Microsoft BG Lead -- Server and Tools, Joel H. Garcia. VMware Senior Director of Channels in Asia Pacific and Japan, Vicki Batka agrees, disclosing that the savings companies get from deploying virtualization comes from its "dramatically lower hardware costs and the associated cooling and space costs."

True enough, Aboitiz Jebsen Bulk Transport Corporation, IS Department Assistant Vice President, Vivian Cristobal, saw this similar savings by having "a cost comparison on doing virtualization as against the traditional buying of server on a four-year period." Aside from the fact that the machines came out cheaper, Cristobal adds that they are still anticipating more reduced costs with energy consumption and reduced data center space.

With this factor alone, convincing the C-level executives in these changes within their IT is not expected to be tough. Even Phelps Dodge Philippines Energy Products Corp. IT manager, Anthony Garcia shares that he did not have a hard time in this aspect. "Executives will just look at the cost and the advantage."

However, Microsoft's Garcia tells that more than the cost, there are more reasons as to why businesses move into virtualization - or in some cases, why they don't jump to it. These all depend on the business needs. "To an SMB, it's either working for them or it's not," highlights Garcia.

A company's maturity model dictates how they would run their business, where they will put their data center, and what they really are trying to achieve. Garcia furthers that agility and cost are just some of the primary drivers. "You link that with virtualization, if that's the best way."

An example is Phelps Dodge, who considers virtualization's space-saving ability a bigger factor than the cost. "It saves space, you just get to manage one box and everything is already there," explains Phelps Dodge's Garcia. "Per site, we used to have 6, but we were able to reduce it to 3 because we virtualized."

Meanwhile, The Rosetta Group, having deployed both server virtualization and desktop virtualization, has seen this technology as an enabler for business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities, aside from cutting down cost and saving space. "We can create machines in minutes without having to buy a server," boasts The Rosetta Group President, Greg Martin. "We can even copy an entire Virtual Machine, put it on DVD or disk, and move the server in its entirety to another machine halfway around the world."

These goals that IT departments set for the company are seen by VMware's Batka as a result of the equally evolving role of companies' IT teams. "IT departments stand to become more responsive to the needs of the business." Gone are the days when the IT department is depicted as a mere assistant to operations, they are now "seen as an innovator that is driving new business initiatives."

MITIGATING TH E VIRTUAL RIS KS

However, like any technology, virtualization is not without risks. While cost-efficiency is one of the primary advantages of virtualization, some factors may still be overlooked. To further reduce costs, proper cooling should also be maintained.

"When installing virtualized servers, especially of great number, they tend to be installed and grouped in ways that create localized high-density areas that can lead to hot spots," says Schneider Electric Vice President for IT Business, Jean-Francois De Sousa. "Grouping or clustering these bulked up, virtualized servers can result in significantly higher power densities that could then cause cooling problems." To address this, De Sousa advices IT teams to "isolate higher density equipment in a separate location from lower density equipment."

Apart from this challenge, Microsoft's Garcia forewarns IT teams that consolidation into a virtualized environment does not totally assure zero downtime and running it in multiple instances is still crucial. This is the same reason why, Phelps Dodge's Garcia carries hesitations in including their company's database into their virtual machines. "The only fear is, when this one box breaks down, all the virtualized servers inside will be down, too," he says.

To answer this concern, the IT departments "still need to manage [virtual machines] like you would on physical servers; small, medium or large," states Microsoft's Garcia. Schneider Electric's De Sousa agrees to this statement and says that such will only happen if one has a host fail without redundancy.

Business continuity and data security are just two of the reasons why IT managers should ensure duplication of virtual machines. In the same survey of Acronis, 33% admit that they don't back up their virtual machines as often as their physical ones, 49% back up either weekly or monthly and just 37% back up on a daily basis.

President for Asia Pacific, Bill Taylor- Mountford feels alarmed by these practices and notes that "protecting data is a fundamental requirement and a best practice for any business of any size today." Mountford reiterates that if this is continually overlooked, companies are soon to face "very real consequences that may adversely impact their business." These impacts can limit or compromise "the broad benefits of virtualization and the cloud," adds Schneider Electric's De Sousa.

To mitigate such risks before it further complicates, "the key is to ensure that the virtualization software meets corporate security policies and ensures regulatory compliance," relates VMware's Batka.

EDUCATI ON IS TOOL

Given that virtualization is offered by various vendors with added assistance, some IT teams have relied on their support to keep this technology in good running condition. Both Aboitiz' Cristobal and Phelps Dodge's Garcia reveal that they have been dependent on vendors as a starter in having this technology. "We don't have enough technical knowledge yet, we are just dependent on the vendors right now," relates Phelps Dodge's Garcia.

However, a company cannot jump headlong into any decision which can alter the company's performance in game for years to come. Enough study of the pros and cons will lead to a decision. The perhaps the foremost question what must a company know prior to availing of virtualization services?

"The initial step is to assess if the current business applications are capable to operate in virtualized environments. Though virtualization technologies have been out for some time, there are still a large number of deployed business applications that are not ready," advises DataOne Asia Philippines Directors for Operations, Alex Fernando. "The company should also determine what virtualization technology is appropriate for their environment. This task will require inputs from people well versed in virtualization and have already deployed or migrated standalone server based applications into virtualized environments."

Further, Fernando also notes that numerous virtualizations platforms are available today and an expert's advice may be needed to determine the right technology for the company. "Hardware (server) resources must be sized adequately in order to avoid under-configured or over-sized platforms," says Fernando. Similarly, Schneider's De Sousa advices IT teams who are planning to deploy virtualization to "understand the technology first." As businesses have varying requirements, CIOs themselves should be able to assess their needs and see the advantage and disadvantages of the technology.

Microsoft's Garcia adds that he sees more of the local enterprises jumping into this technological advancement are soon to carry the proper know-how. "Part of it is education," he affirms. "A lot of market analysts--at least for the hardware market--are now seeing a pick-up on a single CPU servers being virtualized," shares Microsoft's Garcia. "And that's what SMBs will probably look at."

Agreeing to the expected growth of virtualization, The Rosetta Group's Martin, believes that "fairly soon, everyone will know how to virtualize machines and this will become common knowledge." Phelps Dodge's Garcia shakes on side with this, as he predicts the direction of IT. "Yes, everybody will go to the virtualization and the cloud."