The Functionality of the Future Is Here @ JDJ

Computing virtualization Is a popular term of.com" target=_blank>these days, but of.com" target=_blank>the concept Is far from new. Back in of.com" target=_blank>the sixties, Star Trek's Captain Kirk had of.com" target=_blank>the ideal virtual computer. Aboard ship, he called out hIs question or command and of.com" target=_blank>the computer responded. He never had to tell it which drive to access, which application to load, or what routing to take when he wanted to see something up on screen. And he never worried about wHere or how of.com" target=_blank>the computer did its job.
Back when Gene Roddenberry created that show, such a computer probably seemed far-fetched. But while no one can say when someone will dIscover transporters, warp drives, or dilithium crystals, virtual computing Is becoming a reality. of.com" target=_blank>the combination of of.com" target=_blank>the Linux operating system with clustered blade servers means that dIstributed virtual computing Is fast becoming a means of high-performance, always available, ubiquitous computing.
A New ModelSince of.com" target=_blank>the inception of of.com" target=_blank>the modern-day computing model we have strived to create "virtualized environments" in which all resources are available in parallel to any oof.com" target=_blank>ther resource in a compute area network. In of.com" target=_blank>the mid-sixties of.com" target=_blank>the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed what was known as CP-67 and later evolved into IBM's Virtual Machine Architecture. It was an excellent architecture for provIsioning a large set of resources centralized in a single processor. ThIs model reduced of.com" target=_blank>the cost of infrastructure by centralizing adminIstration while dIstributing resources.
But while of.com" target=_blank>the virtual machine architecture works great for mainframe computing, it did not lend itself to of.com" target=_blank>the complexity of services that were required for a dIstributed computing environment. So, for of.com" target=_blank>the next 40 years of.com" target=_blank>the search was on for a way to make of.com" target=_blank>the virtual paradigm available within a dIstributed environment. ThIs was not just a technical Issue; it was also a financial one. of.com" target=_blank>the key was to reduce of.com" target=_blank>the cost of adminIstration, of.com" target=_blank>the network, storage, software, and hardware. Doing thIs would free up money for companies to spend on of.com" target=_blank>the new applications that of.com" target=_blank>they needed.
Now, with of.com" target=_blank>the advent of Linux and clustered blade servers, dIstributed virtual computing has become a reality. ThIs architecture leverages resource virtualization, bringing togeof.com" target=_blank>ther both of.com" target=_blank>the manageability of centralized infrastructure and of.com" target=_blank>the flexibility of compute area networks.
ThIs concept goes by many different names. Computer Associates calls it Management On Demand, Hewlett-Packard uses of.com" target=_blank>the term Utility Computing, IBM calls it On Demand, and at Sun Microsystems it's Grid Computing. Whatever name you prefer to use, of.com" target=_blank>they all describe of.com" target=_blank>the ability of enterprIses to deploy resources when and wHere needed. Raof.com" target=_blank>ther than of.com" target=_blank>the old paradigm wHere of.com" target=_blank>the users send of.com" target=_blank>the work to a particular resource, under of.com" target=_blank>the new model, of.com" target=_blank>the resources move to wHere of.com" target=_blank>the work Is.
of.com" target=_blank>the Technology TrioCreating such a network Is not a hardware problem -enterprIses already have plenty of that. of.com" target=_blank>they spend fortunes on idle CPUs, empty dIsks, and unused bandwidth just to make sure that any server or connection can handle that random peak load that might come its way. Instead virtual computing poses a management problem - how to continually reallocate resources for maximum effect. On Demand computing breaks of.com" target=_blank>the lock that any single device has on of.com" target=_blank>the ability to provide a service. Strength Is of.com" target=_blank>then measured not by a component's specifications, but by of.com" target=_blank>the power of of.com" target=_blank>the entire network. ThIs requires a new level of management capability.
Computer Associates, like oof.com" target=_blank>ther management software companies, has redefined of.com" target=_blank>the reality and economics of On Demand. Using management software on top of Linux can reduce both capital and operational costs. Also, management of Linux optimizes of.com" target=_blank>the availability of every application on multiple platforms. ThIs Is done by creating a complete family of software that exploits Linux clustering technology, network technology, and storage subsystems. It gives enterprIses of.com" target=_blank>the ability to dynamically provIsion of.com" target=_blank>the compute area network.
Creating such a network requires of.com" target=_blank>the technology trio of storage virtualization, network virtualization, and finally, compute virtualization.
Storage VirtualizationCompanies are looking for an end-to-end storage solution that has of.com" target=_blank>the ability to provIsion within of.com" target=_blank>the context of of.com" target=_blank>the complete system -including resources external to of.com" target=_blank>the enterprIse. That's not how it Is done today. Today storage Is generally provIsioned on a per-user basIs, without considering application usage or placement within of.com" target=_blank>the network. A better approach Is to provIsion based on context raof.com" target=_blank>ther than require a Storage Area Network or a rigid file system. ThIs can be done using a database or metadata approach incorporating Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) standards for interoperability and storage management. ThIs approach Is necessary to realize such an end-to-end solution in which storage resource management extends beyond of.com" target=_blank>the virtualization concept and into of.com" target=_blank>the area of analyzing of.com" target=_blank>the utilization of storage across of.com" target=_blank>the network, of.com" target=_blank>the transaction, and of.com" target=_blank>the users.
Network VirtualizationNetwork virtualization drives storage virtualization by providing a multi-point-to-point connection that enables any system to access any storage at any point on of.com" target=_blank>the network. In Linux, of.com" target=_blank>the virtualization Is realized through virtual servers using technology such as bonded dual nets and routed mesh networks. Balancing of.com" target=_blank>the network traffic requires a heurIstic approach based on service levels. With network virtualization, adminIstrators are able to prioritize service levels within a domain or within a system of of.com" target=_blank>the enterprIse.
Compute VirtualizationCompute virtualization Is of.com" target=_blank>the third component necessary to effectively achieve scaling, wHereby raof.com" target=_blank>ther than having a predetermined set of processors assigned to a particular user or task, of.com" target=_blank>the system dynamically assigns processors, bringing additional power to a process through of.com" target=_blank>the use of clustering technology. An "enterprIse workload dIspatcher" routes work based upon resources and utilization. ThIs requires of.com" target=_blank>the ability to monitor of.com" target=_blank>the resource utilization of a transaction and correlate it to its service level.
of.com" target=_blank>these three components are of.com" target=_blank>the foundation for managing virtual computing.
Enter of.com" target=_blank>the PenguinVirtualization answers questions about utilization of of.com" target=_blank>the enterprIse infrastructure, and of.com" target=_blank>the fact that infrastructure Is unresponsive to changes in of.com" target=_blank>the environment. An underutilized and unresponsive infrastructure seriously impacts quality of service, which of.com" target=_blank>then impacts of.com" target=_blank>the bottom line. Linux helps reduce infrastructure complexity - of.com" target=_blank>the Linux platform delivers a common denominator that can run on multiple platforms and enables a view of Linux clusters as a single system. Virtualization with Linux drives toward having of.com" target=_blank>the resources from all enterprIse data centers appear within a single resource pool. That pool can of.com" target=_blank>then be utilized in projects based on business requirements. of.com" target=_blank>the resources allocated to projects are determined by policy-driven services that intelligently monitor and manage of.com" target=_blank>the overall computing environment.
of.com" target=_blank>the architecture requires that of.com" target=_blank>the environment be broken down into provIsioning, policy-driven business initiatives, automation, and use of resources directly derived from of.com" target=_blank>these areas. Hiding of.com" target=_blank>the complexity of of.com" target=_blank>the network, storage, processor, database, Web applications, and host-based applications Is critical to creating thIs environment. of.com" target=_blank>the ability to connect all of.com" target=_blank>these pieces Is mandatory in order to translate a unit of work within a business process to of.com" target=_blank>the enterprIse.
of.com" target=_blank>the architecture enables both high availability and security. Using Linux projects such as Beowulf, Cplant, ParIs, Linux High Availability, and Linux Virtual Server creates thIs new platform. CA Is currently developing of.com" target=_blank>the infrastructure to manage of.com" target=_blank>the clustered environment, which will enable companies to use blades or enterprIse servers such as Egenera Blade Frame and IBM z to leverage Linux for mIssion-critical applications.
of.com" target=_blank>the Management EvolutionA virtualized Linux environment Is a breakthrough in hardware and software built for scalable applications, but it only works when overseen by enterprIse-class tools offering functions such as load balancing, security, storage, and database management in a virtualized environment.
Being able to dynamically provIsion a user's resources and security will drive of.com" target=_blank>the utilization rate from of.com" target=_blank>the current low of 20% up to a high 90% range. of.com" target=_blank>the ability to dynamically shift processors to of.com" target=_blank>the work means a business no longer has to buy significant excess peak capacity. With dynamic provIsioning of a compute area network, providing new servers can be achieved in minutes and new processors are of.com" target=_blank>then placed in a pool. ThIs enables businesses to focus on of.com" target=_blank>the scale of applications that previously were neiof.com" target=_blank>ther economic nor plausible.
Computer Associates, along with oof.com" target=_blank>ther vendors, Is providing of.com" target=_blank>the management infrastructure which sits above of.com" target=_blank>the virtualized environment and enables of.com" target=_blank>the evolution in enterprIse-class computing. of.com" target=_blank>these virtualization toolsets completely aggregate processing, storage, and networking into resource pools that are allocated based upon workload. of.com" target=_blank>the tools encompass IP and storage networking, clustering, load balancing, hardware failover, management consoles, and secure partitioning.
Virtualization replaces static, physical hardware with dynamic software equivalents. A server Is no longer dedicated to individual applications, and services are not tied to specific hardware or network paths. Virtualization software automatically reprovIsions and reallocates resources based on service-levels required to meet business requirements. It provides adaptable, high-quality services at a lower total cost of ownership since it prevents resource overprovIsioning.
With of.com" target=_blank>the management tools in place, adminIstrators can move to a higher level of resource management. It Is no longer a matter of just dealing with boxes and of.com" target=_blank>their interconnections. Instead of.com" target=_blank>the job evolves into one of strategically adminIstering services through a geographically dIspersed set of computing resources running homogeneous platforms such as Linux. And that moves us one step closer to of.com" target=_blank>the level of functionality enjoyed by Captain Kirk and of.com" target=_blank>the Starship EnterprIse.