Interop: Virtualization Ushers In Data Center Efficiencies

VMware and Citrix Systems are competing head-to-head to gain ground in the next round of virtualization in the enterprise, but they're going about it in decidedly different ways.

Their competition, along with rapidly emerging third-party toolsets for managing virtual machines, will be evident in the keynotes and sessions of Interop in Las Vegas, May 17 - 21.

VMware is focused on converting the data center into a more virtualized environment through its layer of software products. If it has its way, every data center eventually will look more like a cloud computing center.

Citrix does many of the same things VMware does, but for now, it's focused on converting the enterprise, starting with the end user, and moving up. It seeks to flank today's IT-centric data center with a more consumer-like approach to virtualization's end users.

As VMware CTO Stephen Herrod said at the company's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters in April, virtualization software is directly taking over some tasks that used to be done in highly specialized hardware configurations. Many of these functions are being built into VMware's vSphere 4 suite.

One piece is vSphere's Fault Tolerance, which "spins up a shadow VM of the one running, mimicking everything the primary one is doing. If production virtual machine fails, it seamlessly cuts over to the shadow VM without anyone noticing" the changeover, he said.

VMware will be emphasizing aspects of the virtual data center operating system at Interop. Herrod will give a keynote address on virtualization's future at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Fellow VMware CTO for management Ben Verghese will speak at a session, "Virtualization Management Futures: The Final Frontier?" at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Citrix System, the leader in virtualizing end user applications, is building on its Presentation Server presence in the enterprise. Presentation Server virtualized hundreds of Windows applications on central servers, where end users access them. Any application or desktop that currently can be virtualized under Citrix XenServer, Citrix XenApp, and Citrix Desktop can be made accessible to end users through a new Citrix product, Dazzle, a lightweight storefront for distributing virtualized applications and desktops

"We are putting the personal back into personal computing," said Citrix's Wes Wasson, adding that the Dazzle approach mimics many aspects of Apple's iTunes store. Many enterprise employees know how to go to the store and find what they want, either by subject, by name of the song, or by artist. They should be able to find what they need in enterprise software in a similar manner, Wasson said, and the storefront is designed accordingly. Employees may even make up their own "playlists" of applications, he said. Citrix's Aaron Cockerill, senior director of product management, will speak at 11: 30 a.m. Wednesday, on "Conflict Avoidance With Application Virtualization."

Elsewhere at Interop, Ixia will be showing its IxVM virtual data center simulation product, according to Deepesh Arora, director of application testing. The IxVM suite can test in depth a possible data center configuration on user-defined hardware, including application performance, I/O throughput, and network performance. As server consolidation increases, new bottlenecks have emerged even when the virtual machines have enough memory and CPU cycles, he said.

So far, IxVM has been used primarily by virtualization vendors, Internet service providers, and hardware device manufacturers to get statistics and assessments on how large a configuration of VMs their gear can support, and where the bottlenecks are. In the future, it may find use in large enterprise virtualized environments. Deepesh Arora will speak at a 10:15 a.m. Wednesday session, "Tuning, Tweaking, And Troubleshooting Your Virtual Infrastructure."

VKernel CEO and founder Alex Bakman said his company will be emphasizing tools to help VMware customers manage their ESX Server environments. VKernel produces Capacity Analyzer, so virtualization implementers have the means to know when they'll run out of resources and predict future problems. Its Modeler is a product to simulate changes to the infrastructure and show "what-if" type results.

A new addition, said Bakman, is Chargeback, although he acknowledged most IT managers implementing ESX Server aren't literally charging employees for the use of VMs. Rather, Chargeback gives IT staff the means to see who is using virtual machines, what resources those VMs consume, and what value may be assigned for that use.

"Most people assume virtual machines are free. This is a good way to have a business discussion with end users on what they're consuming," he said. Bakman will speak at a session on "Tuning, Tweaking, And Troubleshooting Your Virtual Infrastructure" at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Vizioncore will be showing its new VControl product, which introduces the concept of letting end users provision themselves with their own virtual machines, said Tyler Jewell, senior director of virtualization strategy. The user can specify through a menu interface his preference for number of virtual CPUs and amount of memory and storage and then name the preferred operating system to run on the VM.

With users tending to their own needs, IT administrators can invest more time in managing the virtual environment growing up around them. "VControl is helping the administrator deal with virtual machine sprawl issues," said Jewell. Through VControl, administrators can decommission VMs that have reached their expiration date or conduct other actions on groups of VMs with one command.

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