Virtualisation The state of play Jon Collins, Managing Director Freeform Dynamics Ltd [email_address] February 2009 www.freeformdynamics.com

Agenda Crisis? What crisis? Virtualisation in practice Back to the future?

Crisis? What crisis?

Virtualisation in practice

Back to the future?

Crisis? What crisis? How well aligned are IT activities with business priorities? How do users generally feel about IT in your organisation?

The UK view at the end of 2008... Is IT funding in your organisation generally on the way up or down? Has the ‘credit crunch’ had an impact on IT investment in your company?

Market is currently turbulent...

The virtualisation feel-good factor 250-4999 employees

Why virtualise?

However, knowledge levels are low What is your current level of knowledge and experience of virtualisation?

Agenda Crisis? What crisis? Virtualisation in practice Back to the future

Crisis? What crisis?

Virtualisation in practice

Back to the future

Virtualisation - UK Servers Storage Desktops

The impact of virtualisation On hardware acquisition strategy On management and support processes

Wish list... “ Affordable tools to manage both the virtualization hosts and the VMs themselves” “ Guests require nearly as much management time as a physical server.” “ Better ability to manage guest OSs” “ Better coordination of hardware allocation and software licensing” “ Backup integration could be improved” “ Common Virtual machine format” “ Make virtual machines portable between different vendors/hypervisors” “ Better management” “ Being able to simulate performance on virtual as opposed to physical systems” “ Ability to compare performance stats with physicals” “ Better Microsoft support of Vmware” “ Better support from ISVs” “ Business cases that work”

“ Guests require nearly as much management time as a physical server.”

“ Better ability to manage guest OSs”

“ Better coordination of hardware allocation and software licensing”

“ Backup integration could be improved”

“ Common Virtual machine format”

“ Make virtual machines portable between different vendors/hypervisors”

“ Better management”

“ Being able to simulate performance on virtual as opposed to physical systems”

“ Ability to compare performance stats with physicals”

“ Better Microsoft support of Vmware”

“ Better support from ISVs”

And real challenges “ Insight into total machine resources used and accounting is also light for most VM environments” “ Budget owner wants to see 'their' servers” “ A solution in search of a problem ” “ Some niche things it seems well suited for, but not a blanket panacea.” “ Difficult to start ” “ Application suppliers won't support us” “ Cost analysis does not show benefit” “ Can't virtualise Sparc” “ OS and Application Licensing” “ Cost of virtualization software”

“ Budget owner wants to see 'their' servers”

“ A solution in search of a problem ”

“ Some niche things it seems well suited for, but not a blanket panacea.”

“ Difficult to start ”

“ Application suppliers won't support us”

“ Cost analysis does not show benefit”

“ Can't virtualise Sparc”

“ OS and Application Licensing”

“ Cost of virtualization software”

Licensing is a major challenge Are you happy with existing licensing models as applied to virtual systems?

Agenda Crisis? What crisis? Virtualisation in practice Back to the future?

Crisis? What crisis?

Virtualisation in practice

Back to the future?

Virtualised Computing – Back to the Future? Web Servers Messaging Servers Security Server Directory. Servers ID Server Proxy Server App Servers Integration Servers Transaction Servers File Servers Database Servers Media Servers Portal Server Presentation Processing Data

A bright future for virtualisation?

Virtualisation The state of play Jon Collins, Managing Director Freeform Dynamics Ltd [email_address] www.freeformdynamics.com