|
This report focuses on the potential economic benefits of large-scale virtualization for two subsets of the large organization IT environment – UNIX and Linux servers.
Specifically, it deals with the potential benefits of strategies that effectively exploit the virtualization strengths of the IBM System p platform. It addresses established System p strengths, as well as the new capabilities announced by IBM with the introduction of its POWER6 processor-based p570 servers in May 2007.
Potential benefits are illustrated by three composite profiles of large financial services, manufacturing and retail companies. For each profile, two sets of scenarios are presented: (1) conventional scenarios built around diverse, multivendor bases of UNIX and Intel-based Linux servers; and (2) virtualized scenarios in which the same applications run on System p servers leveraging the full potential of virtualization. For each profile and scenario, costs are then compared. Results are summarized below.
UNIX Server Costs
Five-year server operating costs for System p virtualized scenarios including POWER6 processor-based p570 and POWER5+ processor-based System p5 servers averaged 72 percent less than those for conventional scenarios.
Operating costs, in this context, include hardware maintenance; update subscriptions and support for systems and database software; personnel for system administration-related functions; and facilities costs for data center occupancy, power and cooling.
Even allowing for the costs of acquiring new System p hardware and systems software required to realize these savings, overall costs were still significantly lower. If acquisition costs are included in virtualized scenarios, five-year costs for these averaged 66 percent less than those for conventional scenarios. Detailed breakdowns of costs, along with explanations of variations between scenarios for these
comparisons are provided in figures 17 and 18 respectively in the Cost Picture section of this report. Cost reductions were enabled through multiple System p virtualization capabilities. Dynamic logical partitions (LPARs), along with Workload Partitions (WPARs) combine with effective system and workload management facilities to enable high levels of server consolidation and capacity utilization. The comparisons in figures 1 and 2 are between conventional scenarios and virtualized scenarios, which include p570 as well as System p5 servers.
The new POWER6 processor-based System p 570 servers, however, offer significant improvements in performance and virtualization capability. If costs of p570 models in virtualized scenarios are compared with those of equivalent servers in conventional scenarios, disparities widen. Five-year operating costs for p570 servers averaged 79 percent less than those for conventional equivalents.
If acquisition costs for p570 servers are included in comparisons, five-year costs averaged 72 percent less than those for conventional equivalents. Figures 3 and 4 summarize results.
Detailed breakdowns of costs, along with explanations of variations between scenarios for these comparisons are provided in figures 17 and 19 respectively in the Cost Picture section of this report. Lower costs for p570 servers are due to virtualization capabilities supported on System p5 servers, as well as to higher levels of performance and new POWER6 processor-specific capabilities such as Shared Dedicated Capacity, which enable further improvements in system-level capacity utilization.
For p570 as well as System p5 servers, significant economies were realized in I/O-related costs, including local area network (LAN) and storage area network (SAN) adapters, as well physical infrastructures supporting these through use of System p Virtual I/O Server technology. Physical infrastructures include transceivers, structured cabling and switches.
In virtualized scenarios, use of Virtual I/O Servers resulted in I/O-related costs for servers employing LPARs or both that averaged 65 percent less than would have been the case if dedicated adapters were employed. Figure 5 summarizes results.
For both sets of comparisons, full time equivalent (FTE) staffing levels for system administration-related functions such as asset, capacity, change, configuration and performance management are significantly lower for virtualized scenarios. Personnel costs for these functions are correspondingly less. This is due to reductions in numbers of physical servers; reduced diversity of hardware and software platforms; replacement of older-technology servers and systems software with latest-generation System p hardware and software platforms; improved management tools and practices, including increased automation; and use of System p virtualization capabilities.
Linux Server Costs
In addition to the AIX operating system, System p servers may also run the major Linux distributions in native mode. The new IBM System p Application Virtual Environment (System p AVE) allows x86 Linux applications to run on the System p platform without modification.
|
