Today's entry is submitted by Neil Kelly, Developer Relations Director at AMD.

March is “Virtualization Ecosystem Month” at AMD, which means we’re collaborating online with our Virtualization technology partners in the software space, talking about the value of a strong ecosystem in our industry. It is therefore fitting that our first virtualization guest blog in March finds me here.

The first virtualization software solution company I met with after coming to AMD three years ago was a small startup out of Acton, MA called, you guessed it, Virtual Iron Software. This was the little company with big ideas to produce a robust, cost effective virtualization solution based on the Xen open source hypervisor for enterprise and mid-market customers. Today, following their release of Virtual Iron 4.5 Extended Enterprise Edition last month, they’ve turned those big ideas into robust solutions for our mutual customers. Looking back, it’s interesting to chart our advances in AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™ - our virtualization hardware assist technology) and Virtual Iron’s growth into a strong virtualization solution provider.

Some may not remember the early days of Xen prior to processor hardware virtualization assist functionality. Solutions were limited, with focus on Linux deployments, and probably best suited for academia. Virtual Iron (and others) recognized the advantages of hardware assist early and used it to help build lean, reliable and high performing virtualization solutions. Version 3.0 released in October 2006 used AMD-V™ shortly after it was available in server and so Virtual Iron, with its support for Microsoft Windows in December 2006, was on its way. Less than a year later we were working together to test hardware assist for VM memory management, an AMD-V enhancement we call Rapid Virtualization Indexing. As a result, Virtual Iron now uses that functionality on Quad-core AMD Opteron™ processor-based servers--more efficient, more effective virtualization working together.

Today, as we continue to work together you may well wonder what else may be in the works? We’re looking at more efficient power management through use of AMD’s PowerNow technology, reduced IO virtualization overhead with IOMMU, more efficient vSMB processing with hardware assist, and there are other neat things we’re considering, too.

Congrats to Virtual Iron on its success. They’ve come a long way in a short time and I’m pleased that our two companies have contributed to a stronger virtualization ecosystem.

Neil Kelly is Developer Relations Director at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Virtual Iron was highlighted in a recent IT blog regarding Linux based server virtualization platforms. Click here to read this interesting piece.

The author, Ken Hess, postulates that if you are stubborn or smart you won’t be leaping on the Hyper V platform any time too soon. We agree of course. He also briefly outlines the Linux-based alternatives and asks customers to speak up about their experience with our product as he does not have any hands on with our solution himself.

Before I ask our customers to speak up, I want to mention one of the key features of the Virtual Iron solution – the VI-Center – that Ken is unaware of. VI-Center provides a central place to control and automate virtual resources. It streamlines tasks that are normally highly manual and time-intensive and significantly reduces data center costs and complexity. It provides a bunch of out-of-the-box policies that simplify tasks such as HA and capacity management and provides a Python scripting language to allow you to create your own policies (and even to extend the VI-Center UI). The only other vendor who offer comparable functionality is VMware BUT…at considerable cost.

One of the many things we have in abundance at Virtual Iron is customer testimonials. We thought we’d share a few that speak directly to Ken’s thoughtful blog:

“Virtual Iron was one-tenth the cost of VMware and it gave us a lot more functionality,” states Peter Philbrick, IT Director at ComCor, a correctional services provider in Colorado.

“In this case lower cost did not mean less functionality or quality. That’s a critical consideration for a non-profit with limited resources.”

“It’s all about containing costs while getting the job done. Virtual Iron allows us to avoid the bottomless pit of upgrading and maintaining multiple pieces of hardware, while improving the way the firm runs,” stated Mike Ferguson, Director of Information Technology, at Berman, Rennert, Vogel & Mandler, a Miami, Florida, law firm specializing in general business and commercial law. “We didn’t implement VMware because it was too costly. Virtual Iron is more intuitive, easy-to-use, and a lot less expensive than VMware. Plus, Virtual Iron offers a rich set of features at a single, easy-to-understand price. We didn’t need to pay anything extra to get all the functionality we required.”

“It is extremely important that we have a server virtualization solution that not only meets our IT needs, but can grow with us and support our future business requirements,” stated Gregg Hughes, IT Specialist, ISB Community Bank, a growing financial institution in Wisconsin. “Virtual Iron has the complete set of features we need. We also value their exceptional level of service; indeed, they are the new benchmark in our service expectation.”

I encourage customers to respond to Ken’s blog and their future plans for Linux-based server virtualization instead of the alternative.

Byte and Switch posts a nice article describing how Shawn Partridge at Rockford Construction is using Virtualization. I've extracted a couple quotes from the article:

"We went with Virtual Iron instead of VMware because of the features like live migration, server failover, and management of storage," he said. He also needed the power-down functionality: "As your needs go down, it will power down servers and move virtual servers over." He continues, "You're no longer purchasing for peak demand on a per system basis. You're purchasing for peak demand on a system-wide basis. We get a higher utilization than we would have had on ordinary servers. We have servers that would have been on low-end systems that are part of higher performance systems."

The Bonneville Joint School District in Idaho is one of several K-12 school systems leveraging Virtual Iron to reduce power, cooling and space requirements and increase server utilization while supporting an ever increasing demand for computing services.

The seventh largest school system in Idaho, Bonneville serves approximately 9,300 students and employs more than 1,200 faculty and staff. The district has 12 elementary schools, three middle schools for grades 7-8 and three high schools for grades 9-12. The district also sponsors a school at the Behavioral Health Center and a K-8 charter school, and provides services for a comprehensive special education program. Lane Virgin, Bonneville’s system administrator has seen the addition of four new elementary schools in his six years with the school district. It is projected that in the next five years the school district will add two more elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. This rapid growth has created more and more pressure on the IT infrastructure and support team.

Virgin and the IT team at the school district support a variety of different systems and applications. The data center includes four server racks, two battery back-ups, more than 20 Dell Servers, two Gateway servers, two Dell EqualLogic SAN Arrays, one DVR, three Linux Servers, HP ProCurve Switches, Exchange 2007, print servers, application servers, file servers, IIS servers, Domain Controllers, and SQI servers.

During the summer of 2008 an HVAC and power upgrade was completed, bringing circuit power from 75 to 225 Amps. A natural gas generator was also added. In addition, the physical rack space in the data center was a growing problem since hardware would always be added to handle a new system or application. And, some servers were not even running at full potential and were very inefficient from a heating perspective. All of these issues and workloads were pushing the limits of the infrastructure — power, cooling, networking and administration. The IT infrastructure was simply not keeping pace as the school district’s need for computing power increased. The data center had become outdated.

In 2007, Lane Virgin began researching the available server virtualization technologies. He was then introduced to Virtual Iron and quickly realized how clean and easy to use the Virtual Iron design was. Lane dove in immediately and within ten minutes had Virtual Iron’s virtualization management platform, VI-Center, installed on a Dell 1855 Blade Server. According to Lane, he “never looked back” once he started using Virtual Iron.

Today, Virtual Iron, in concert with Dell servers and Dell/EqualLogic storage is providing the school department’s IT team with a proven and cost-effective server virtualization platform that delivers a number of benefits including:
- Significant server consolidation
- Faster provisioning and deployment of new systems
- Business continuity for all applications
- Reduced administrative time, effort and expense

For the complete case study, click here.

Healthcare is another strong segment for server virtualization and Virtual Iron. Healthcare providers are continually looking for ways to reduce unnecessary expense. At the same time, technology has become an increasingly integral part of the healthcare process – from patient care, to records management, to the digitization of patient data. All this puts immense pressure on healthcare providers’ IT systems and data centers.

Northern Berkshire Health (NBH) in Western Massachusetts is a great example of a provider that has leveraged server virtualization to address these challenges. The hospital is streamlining its IT infrastructure, consolidating its server footprint and reducing its power, cooling and space requirements with server virtualization. Equally important, NBH has significantly reduced the complexity of its environment.

One of the most visible and symbolic reminders of the impact of server virtualization at NBH: a three-tier, 8’ x 8’ tower of 30 rack mount servers has been reduced to a 2’ x 8” blade system with just four blades. As evidence of the total business impact: NBH has reduced its IT budget by 10% each of the last two years. At the same time, it has increased its computing capacity by 20% each year. Server virtualization has played a key role here. NBH is also using Virtual Iron to simplify its back-up and disaster recovery infrastructure. Using a combination of server virtualization and a Storage Area Network (SAN), NBH get’s all the security of tape without giving up any accessibility.

For more details on NBH’s server virtualization implementation, click here.

Virtual Iron has been deployed by a number of higher ed institutions to streamline their IT infrastructure, reduce power and cooling and support business continuity efforts.

One very recent example is the Computer Science Department at UMass Lowell. This group is leveraging Virtual Iron to create a more flexible IT infrastructure and to meet the increasing academic/research computing needs of its faculty and students. Virtual Iron provides the department’s IT group with a reliable and cost-effective server virtualization platform that delivers a number of important current and future benefits including:
- 4 to 1 server consolidation ratios
- Reductions in power and cooling to support its green computing efforts
- Optimization of both its x86 server and desktop computing environment
- Cost-effective high availability and disaster recovery
- A streamlined test and development process
- Fast and easy recoverability in event of failure

To view the complete case study, click here.

ZDNet.com recently had the chance to speak with the Director of Technology at Maryland-based law firm Goodell DeVries Leech & Dann. The firm is using server virtualization to improve its business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities. The writer, Dan Kusnetsky, covered topics such as why the firm selected Virtual Iron, what benefits they have received and what advice they would give other users. The complete story appears here.

You wouldn’t know it from all the hype, but the reality is that server virtualization is still only deployed on about 6-8% of the installed x86 server base worldwide today. To take the value of server virtualization to the next level requires that we in the industry find a way to gain greater adoption in the small and medium-sized enterprises. To date, these organizations have been largely shut out of the market for true virtualization by the high cost and complexity of available solutions on the market.

At Virtual Iron, we certainly believe that we are helping to change that reality. New solution alternatives like Virtual Iron’s that deliver comprehensive, easy-to-use features in a cost-effective package along with better market awareness and broader distribution worldwide are enabling organizations of all sizes to realize the true benefits of fully-featured server virtualization.

Two Virtual Iron customers – both small professional services firms - recently shared their experience with server virtualization. One is on track to save over $100,000 in its first year as a result of reduced server purchases, power and cooling and data center infrastructure costs. The other is using virtualization for business continuity and fast recoverability – enabling it to have its systems back up and running in minutes instead of days in the event of a failure.

Whether you’re interested in Virtual Iron or any other solution, these two users offer some valuable insights on things to consider when planning your own virtualization project. You can view the webcast here.

Virtual Iron has become the server virtualization solution of choice for K-12 school systems. This blog describes how the Emanuel County School System, a rural school district in Georgia, is using Virtual Iron. The next entry profiles the Pawtucket School Department, an urban school district across the US.

Emanuel County is located 90 miles west of Savannah, Georgia. It covers almost 700 square miles in east-central Georgia and is home to just over 22,000 residents. While the area is largely rural, the county school district puts a high priority on developing strong educational programs and it views information technology as an important enabler for achieving this goal. The school system educates 4,500 students in eight schools covering pre-K through 12th grade.

As the school system has grown, it has put increasing pressure on its IT systems. The district moved into a new centralized data center, bought new, more powerful servers and, for a short time, resolved its problems. But, as the county, its school system, and its IT needs continued to grow, the school system quickly outgrew the capacity of its new data center. Where it started with 20 servers, Emanuel County quickly added more to meet increasing demand. This created significant power and space issues. There was pressure to add additional servers as well, but retrofitting the data center to accommodate that growth was a very expensive proposition. This led to a decentralized architecture with seven different locations each housing three to four servers supporting the school district. The root cause of this server sprawl was the low utilization of the school system’s existing server infrastructure. Each server was dedicated to a single application running, in most cases, at less than 15% utilization. This was a clear indication that implementing server virtualization would pay significant dividends in terms of both OpEx and CapEx savings.

ECSS looked at several vendors, including VMware, but deemed it too expensive and too complex. They also tested both Citrix XenSource and Novell Xen, but did not feel the capabilities in these solutions were comprehensive enough to meet its needs. These solutions also required Linux command line programming which introduced unnecessary complexity for the ECSS IT staff. They then learned about Virtual Iron, and after extensive internal testing, found it much easier to use and afford.

Today, with the help of server and storage virtualization from Virtual Iron and LeftHand Networks, ECSS has streamlined its data center, reducing its number of servers from 38 to 18, with half of those servers part of a hot backup site for disaster recovery. With this consolidation, the school system has not only reduced its power and cooling costs, but also avoided the physical labor, capital expenses and server outages that would have resulted from retrofitting its existing data center with additional cooling and power outlets.

The school district is running Windows and Linux workloads side by side on the same servers. Typical Windows workloads being virtualized include the district’s e-mail archive system, Zenworks Configuration Management, and eDirectory services. Typical Linux workloads include Novell OES2, SASI Student Information System and Novell GroupWise. Emanuel County and SSI report no performance degradation on those workloads.

The Pawtucket School Department in Rhode Island is leveraging server virtualization as a core foundation to streamline its IT infrastructure and reduce its capital and operating expenses.

The school department serves over 9000 students and 1300 faculty and staff, throughout 17 schools and an administration building. With reduced city and state aid to education, there is never enough money to support the technology and the related services required by its constituents.

Mike St. Jean, the school department's Director of Technology, has used creativity and resourcefulness to deliver a high level of IT services across the entire school district. Over the past few years, under Mike’s leadership, the school department shifted its district-wide technology model and resources from a traditional client-server model to thin client and server based computing model.

As a result, the Pawtucket School Department has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars while greatly increasing access, services, security, and manageability compared to traditional desktop computers. However, this new architecture introduced its own new set of challenges. One negative byproduct has been the sheer amount of server sprawl that has resulted. For example, each high school has one Novell Netware workgroup server and six Windows 2003 Enterprise R2 (Win2K3) terminal servers. Each junior high school has one Netware and four Win2K3 Terminal Servers. Each elementary school has one Netware and one to two Win2k3R2 terminal servers. The Administration Building houses an additional twenty or so terminal, workgroup, web, communications, data, and application servers. District-wide the IT staff maintains eighty servers, supporting 2000 workstations, 1600 of which are dedicated thin clients, with a need for further expansion. Clearly, the environment was ripe for server virtualization and consolidation.

In early 2007, St. Jean set out to research server virtualization technologies. He looked at every available option in detail, testing them himself to form his own opinions. Eventually, Mike got around to testing Virtual Iron. He downloaded the Virtual Iron free trial. Within ten minutes he had the Virtual Iron Virtualization Manager installed and was off and running. This trial was so encouraging and the management capabilities so intuitive and robust that, after reviewing all the available alternatives, St. Jean and his IT staff decided Virtual Iron was the best product, period. Even though it cost more than the free products, it had additional performance and management capabilities that the School District simply could not live without. But this cost was still significantly less than comparable offerings by VMware or Citrix.

According to St. Jean, “ based on the success of these trials, the IT staff plans to cut the district’s 36 physical school-based terminal servers in half due to Virtual Iron’s ability to provide additional management, provisioning, backup, and archiving capabilities. Another benefit is that the IT staff will be able to reduce the electrical and cooling requirements of each school’s central wiring and server closets. This is a significant factor in very old, cramped school buildings, with older infrastructure.”

With a small initial investment, the dedicated IT staff at Pawtucket School District has been able to build gradually, absorbing technologies and expanding capacity as budgets allow. One of the things that the team liked best about Virtual Iron is that it provided it with the ability to start small and to scale fast. Going forward, there are also another dozen or so services targeted for virtualization over the next year as the administration center adds additional managed nodes.

Just as the Pawtucket School Department’s IT staff shifted from a traditional client-server model to thin client infrastructure to realize substantial cost savings and management efficiencies, it is looking to leverage Virtual Iron as a core foundation solution to take CapEx and OpEx savings and management efficiencies to the next level. In St. Jean's words, "Virtual Iron is budget friendly to cash-starved school districts, easy to setup, use and maintain for time-limited IT staff, and is stable, high performing, and secure to meet the exponentially growing technology needs of students, faculty, and administration."