Tag: Data Center

Virtualization transformed data centers and restructured the IT hardware market. In this time of change, startups seized the opportunity to carve out a niche for products like virtualization-specific storage. But are these newcomers like Nutanix and Fusion-io here to stay or will they struggle to compete as established companies catch up with storage innovations of their own?

For a long time, it appeared storage vendors were growing complacent. A few interesting features would pop up from time to time, and performance was steadily improving, but there were few exciting breakthroughs. Users weren’t demanding new features, and vendors weren’t making it a priority to deliver storage innovations. Virtualization changed that tired routine.

In many ways, now, it is storage vendors that are knocking down technology walls and enabling new technologies to flourish. I discuss this topic more in my TechTarget article “Virtualization storage innovations challenge market leaders“. Please give it a read and come back here to leave any comments.

Managing data growth continues to be a struggle, and organizations are beginning to outgrow that first storage array they bought a few years ago. As they do, some are in for a big surprise. For years, the focus has been on adding storage capacity. In fact, the development of a storage strategy is still referred to as a “sizing” exercise. However, today the challenge is now accessing that huge amount of data in an acceptable amount of time, and the size or capacity of the drive will have little or no correlation to the performance of the storage. An IT administrator who focuses too narrowly on adding storage capacity can end up with an array that can hold all the data, but can’t support the IOPS demanded by applications.

If you are considering a storage upgrade, it is critical that you understand how this can impact your organization. I cover this in more detail in my TechTarget article “Adding storage capacity can actually hurt IOPS“. Please take a minute to read the article, the come back here and leave a comment to contribute to the conversation.

Desktop hypervisors, such as VMware Workstation and Parallels Desktop, open up a world of management and troubleshooting possibilities for server virtualization admins.

Whether you are new to server virtualization or a seasoned veteran, there is a very good chance that your first hands-on experience with the technology was in the form of a desktop tool such as VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, Parallels or even Windows Virtual PC. You probably installed it as a chance to kick the virtual tires or maybe to aid in a major operating system change.

Regardless of the reason, for many, the virtualization journey began with a desktop hypervisor. In fact, I don’t think we give enough credit to just how great of a role these desktop tools play in the world of server virtualization.

Desktop hypervisors may provide more value than you realize, and no IT admin has a good excuse to not be running one. For more on this topic, check out my TechTarget article ““Why virtualization admins and desktop hypervisors should be BFFs“, then come back here and leave any comments that you may have.

As with server virtualization in years past, new data center technology is unsettling for some IT pros. But, if you embrace change, you potentially make yourself more marketable and can vastly improve data center operations.

Several years ago, a hardware vendor ran a commercial that showed someone frantically searching for missing servers in a data center. He eventually learns that the large room, full of servers was consolidated into a single enterprise server platform.

It was an amusing commercial, although this trend of server consolidation did not play out as the advertisement implied. In fact, it was server virtualization that brought about large-scale consolidation efforts. But the premise was still true: Reducing the data center’s physical footprint caused a good deal of anxiety in IT administrators.

To continue this thought, read my TechTarget article “Embrace, don’t fear, new data center technology“, and then come back here to leave a comment.

IT pros still argue over horizontal vs. vertical scaling, but the evolution of virtualization hardware appears to have subtly shifted the data center design debate to horizontal scaling vs. converged infrastructure.

Virtualization is winning the battle over installing an operating system on bare metal, and I think most people will concede that point. Not everyone has adopted virtualization, but time will soften their defenses and allow for improved virtualization  and options — until all are assimilated.

But what will happen to server hardware? Do people still care about the server? Even hypervisors need a physical home, and there are still plenty of discussions on how to best architect that foundation.

To read more on this topic, jump over to my TechTarget article “Virtualization hardware and data center design: did the debate shift?”