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Tellabs, Discover Deploy Virtualization
But potential hurdles haven't stopped organizations from deploying virtualization.
Tellabs Inc., a Naperville, Ill., provider of telecommunications and networking equipment, has been using server virtualization software from VMware since 2003, according to Jean Holley, executive vice president and CIO. The company to date has implemented more than 250 virtual servers worldwide.
The drivers for using virtualization, Holley says, include server hardware consolidation, server hardware cost savings and cost avoidance, and the reduction of server turn-up and deployment time. Like many organizations, Tellabs was dealing with the problem of server sprawl, and the costs of managing and maintaining a large number of servers.
In addition to reducing the number of physical servers it operates-and the associated power and cooling costs-Tellabs is using server capacity more efficiently because of virtualization, Holley says. The company enhanced its server capacity utilization rates from a range of 10% to 20% to a range of 60% to 70%, she says.
Tellabs improved the availability of server resources by having virtual machines take over capacity as needed. "We can now rapidly deploy test [and] development virtual instances and then quickly roll-back those instances to their original state if needed," Holley says. Tellabs also has the ability to use virtual servers in a disaster recover situation to recover server capacity and data quickly, she says.
Among the biggest challenges of using virtualization technology is determining how to effectively charge internally for virtual server capacity, since the hardware the virtual server uses is shared across multiple applications and business units, Holley says. "Also, we now have another technology we must be fully proficient with," she says.
One of the keys to successful virtualization is having the right management tools in place.
"Diagnosing issues and remediation takes longer if system management tools are not installed or configured appropriately for a virtual environment," says Diane Offereins, CTO of Discover Financial Services, a credit card issuer and electronic payment services company in Riverwoods, Ill.
Discover is using virtualization for application hosting, for Windows and Unix servers as well as for desktop computing. Among the company's key goals for virtualization are to increase server utilization rates and increase resiliency when outages occur or maintenance is needed, Offereins says. Indeed, virtualization has enabled higher utilization of servers, as well as improved flexibility for remote users and rapid provisioning.
Discover's use of virtualization on the desktop is indicative of a trend toward deploying virtualization beyond the realm of servers and storage systems in the data center. Organizations can use the technology to deliver desktop applications, Iams says.
With desktop virtualization, a remote user can access-via a portable device such as a laptop-all the capabilities and applications of a virtualized desktop device over a network, despite being physically separated from the device. Other models of desktop virtualization enable shared desktops, in which multiple users can access a common PC desktop environment hosted on a server.
"There is growing interest in virtualizing desktop systems by means of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, which allows administrators to optimize the use of desktop computing resources and manage them with superior economies of scale," Iams says.
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