What Is It?

Virtualization is software that separates an application from the underlying physical hardware on which it runs. It allows a single piece of hardware such as a server to support many applications, thereby running the software more efficiently and at lower cost.

It’s possible to virtualize desktops, servers, operating systems, applications, storage systems and networks. Most of the buzz today in the IT industry, however, is about server virtualization.

Server virtualization enables data centers to reduce the amount of hardware they operate, which frees up floor space. The main driver of virtualization is cost savings. Data centers can virtualize servers at a ratio of 10-to-1 or higher, thereby decreasing the number of servers they operate while increasing performance and uptime.

Virtualization helps agencies reduce server sprawl, which was a result of workgroups buying inexpensive single processor servers to run their applications. Data center operators find that consolidating many small, underutilized servers into one multiprocessor, multicore server saves money.

Why Should I Care?

Server virtualization offers agencies others benefits, including rapid deployment of applications because of faster development and testing cycles on a virtualized infrastructure.

Having a virtualized server farm also facilitates disaster recovery. Because many applications are running on a common server platform, it is easier and less expensive for data center operators to provide continuity of operations in case of an outage.

Another benefit is virtualization lowers power and air conditioning requirements for a data center. That’s one reason why server virtualization efforts are often tied to energy-saving initiatives.

Agencies are under pressure to act more like the private sector, where server virtualization is common. Federal data center operators must apply best practices such as server virtualization to be competitive against the private sector or else they risk having their operations outsourced.

The Office of Management and Budget has been pushing agencies to look for ways to save money by consolidating federal information technology systems. In March 2006, OMB formed the IT Infrastructure Task Force to look for opportunities to consolidate and optimize IT infrastructure. The General Services Administration leads the task force, which supports the IT Infrastructure Optimization Line of Business.

Server virtualization fits in with this trend of trying to reduce the cost of commodity IT infrastructure while maintaining service levels.

Part of the IT Infrastructure Optimization Line of Business initiative, “which has gotten some traction, is identifying common characteristics among the many disparate infrastructures in the federal government to see if they can find ways of improving efficiency,” says Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president of FedSources, a McLean, Va., market research firm. “Virtualization becomes one of the tools to do that. With OMB providing pressure to achieve higher levels of consolidation, I think virtualization will follow.”

Agencies also will be under growing pressure to adopt more environmentally friendly practices in their data centers and to cut back on electricity use. Virtualization helps to lower cooling bills, which is one of the most effective ways to reduce costs.

“Some of the better virtualization technologies really help you go green,” Bjorklund says. “The tangible part of virtualization is going to blade servers, which generally have a lower form, fit and function factors and generally require a little less energy.”

Who’s Using It?

Many federal agencies are embracing server virtualization.

The Defense Contract Management Agency had nearly 600 servers to support the delivery of combat supplies to U.S. troops. The agency’s IT staff faced an overwhelming chore of setting up the servers, installing operating systems and tracking warranties on the equipment.

DCMA selected VMWare’s virtualization software to speed the process of setting up servers. Setting up a new “virtual” server now takes 15 minutes, compared with four hours for a physical server, according to a white paper on the effort. With virtualization, DCMA was able to eliminate 400 of its 560 servers, cutting the floor space required by two-thirds and slashing its annual operating costs.

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is using server virtualization to increase its uptime. With VMWare’s virtualization software, the department is achieving uptime of 99.9 percent, a statistic that was impossible for it to reach on physical servers.

Virtualization also stretched the capabilities of the site’s two-person IT department, which is supporting 600 end users on eight servers. With virtualization, the site consolidated its servers on a 5-1 ratio and improve utilization of those servers from a high of 3 percent to 20 percent. The development time for applications was cut in half, and there was no need to hire additional IT staff.

The Food and Drug Administration reduced its maintenance costs between $3,000 and $4,000 per server with virtualization. FDA has 190 virtual servers running on three server clusters using VMWare’s software. The agency says the number of server-related trouble tickets it has processed dropped 90 percent and its server utilization rates rose from 5 percent to 55 percent.

What Are People Saying About It?

Federal officials increasingly are talking about the connection between server virtualization and improving the energy efficiency of their data centers.

The Environmental Protection Agency replaced aging Unix servers with a modern, virtualized server platform to reduce energy use in its main data center in North Carolina, said EPA’s chief information officer Molly O’Neill.

John Johnson, GSA’s assistant commissioner for integrated technology services, says helping agencies go green is a top priority. That’s why federal acquisition regulations are being rewritten to encourage agencies to purchase energy-efficient equipment. Johnson says GSA is concerned about federal data centers, which consume 1.5 percent of total electricity in the United States.

At issue for federal officials is what metrics to use to measure the energy efficiency of data centers. These metrics likely are to be used in OMB’s score cards for environmental management, which were introduced in 2006 to indicate how well agencies meet overall management objectives to go green.

What Should I Look Out For?

Server virtualization is not easy. It often requires the purchase of hardware such as multiprocessor systems with multiple cores. These systems are pricier, so be careful to buy servers that require less electricity and give off less heat than earlier multiprocessor models.

Not all applications can be virtualized. Some like e-mail can be too input-output intensive for virtualization, while applications like databases can have transaction-processing loads that are too large.

Server virtualization requires management, network and storage infrastructures that support virtualized applications. In particular, server virtualization benefits from a storage area network that can flexibly handle the volume.

Virtualization results in shared systems among departments, which can create territorial issues. You may need to convince workgroups to give up control of their application servers by guaranteeing them certain levels of service on a virtualized system.

With more users and applications sharing a server, it makes that server more susceptible to hardware failures, security breaches and disasters. So be extra cautious about protecting the virtualized servers with best-in-breed security policies and procedures.

Software licensing can be an issue, too. It’s easy to get out of compliance with your software vendors because it’s so simple to set up virtual servers on shared hardware.

How Do I Get Started?

To learn about green IT initiatives and how server virtualization fits, go to the Green IT Web site that the Environmental Protection Agency launched in April 2008.

To learn about the pros and cons of virtualizing servers, here are some introductory articles:

Virtualize a server with minimal downtime Linux Journal

Server virtualization FAQ IT Management

Data center virtualization NetworkWorld

Carolyn Duffy Marsan is a technology business reporter based in Indianapolis.

Related Links:

10 questions to test your virtualization readiness
Advice for venturing into virtualization

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