An Introduction to OS Server Virtualization and a Different Approach to Server Virtualization

White Paper
An Introduction to OS Virtualization
and Virtuozzo
Learn more at www.swsoft.com/virtuozzo
Published: July 2006Revised: July 2006Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 3IT Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 4 -Enterprise It Today ........................................................................................................................ 4Virtuozzo Overview ............................................................................................................................... 5The Complete Server Virtualization Solution ........................................................................................ 6How is Virtuozzo Different? ................................................................................................................... 8Virtuozzo Performance ......................................................................................................................... 9Addressing the Challenges of IT and Conclusion ................................................................................ 10
© SWsoft An Introduction to OS Virtualization and Virtuozzo 2Introduction
Today's IT organizations are dealing with the consequences of exploding IT infrastructure growth and complexity. While computing resources continue to increase in power, organizations are unable to fully utilize them in single application deployments and cannot change computing resource assignments eas-ily when application or business requirements change. At the root of the problem is uncontrolled server sprawl, servers provisioned to support a single application. Organizations that implemented hardware virtualization have unwittingly created a new problem: OS sprawl. While hardware remains a considerable cost component, software and management continue to be the largest cost considerations. The daily management and operations functions are daunting, and adding in business continuity requirements, the costs and complexity are overwhelming. Moreover, few tools provide the management and automation to ease the burden on IT departments.In order to address these critical challenges, IT organizations have to find ways to accomplish the follow-ing:. Improve the flexibility of computing resource assignment. Decrease complexity to improve manageability of systems. Automate routine tasks. Reduce overall management costs through efficiency. Provide cost-effective data availability and recovery. Increase the return from their infrastructure investment by better utilizing resourcesOperating-system level virtualization and Virtuozzo empower IT organizations to meet these challenges and the increasing demands on IT infrastructure..
© SWsoft An Introduction to OS Virtualization and Virtuozzo IT Overview
Enterprise It Today During the last two decades, enterprises experienced explosive IT Managementinfrastructure growth, both in number of servers and complexity of configurations. The typical organization currently has to manage a Softwarecomplex heterogeneous environment consisting of 100s to 1000s of Windows, Linux, UNIX and other servers. HardwareHistorically, most enterprises have deployed a dedicated server for each application or department.The dedicated server model is extremely costly due to:. Infrastructure and Power Costs Housing, cooling, connecting and providing power to servers can be extremely expensive as servers grow to large numbers, especially as power costs continue to rise. Server electricity requirements alone can be a large cost component; a rack of servers can cost $17,000 a year in power.. Hardware Cost Every year servers increase in capacity and computing power. As servers become more powerful it becomes increasingly difficult to maximize utilization of these powerful resources. IT organizations and application owners have become accustomed to dedicating a server to each application to ensure complete control over the application. In almost every case, dedicating these powerful servers results in over provisioning from 50-500%.. Software Cost Each server requires licenses and support from the OS and application software vendors.. Management Cost Management costs are by far the l... [download for more]