Planning Your Journey to a Virtualized Data Center

Successful journeys usually begin with a detailed plan that carefully maps out the destinations, the best routes and a timetable for arrival. A decision to undertake virtualization in your data center is no different. In fact, the decision to implement virtualization in data centers often has been described as a journey. As alluring a destination as a virtualized environment is, getting there isn't always obvious, particularly for those new to the technology. Like any trip, virtualization achieves the best results when it is the product of careful planning.

The benefits of virtualization truly are impressive in terms of simplification, flexibility, and ease of management. IBM clients that have virtualized their x86 server environments with VMware ESX typically are able to achieve server consolidation ratios ranging from 8:1 to as high as 30:1; dramatically reduce staff time spent deploying, repurposing and decommissioning servers; and sharply cut power and cooling costs. This quickly translates into budgetary savings that either can flow to the bottom line or be reinvested in further IT innovations that improve a business's performance. These same clients have seen a return on their investment within six months or less, a reduction in total cost of ownership of between 30 percent and 70 percent and a rise in server utilization rates to as high as 80 percent, instead of rates commonly in the five to 15 percent range.

Of course, in today's hard-nosed cost environment, management isn't simply going to take IT's word that virtualization will be a boon to the organization. They will want to see the business case for virtualization, including estimates on the number of servers that can be consolidated, the amount of technical staff time that will be directed to developing IT services that previously were dedicated to monitoring under-utilized servers, and the amount saved in energy costs. They also will want assurances that performance and disaster recovery won't be compromised.

Aligning IT with business objectives

To meet all these hurdles, the current data center environment and business processes must be examined before software licenses are purchased. First and foremost is the issue of infrastructure readiness. Various applications use processors differently, and the applications in use must be evaluated for compatibility. In addition, pooled resources can conflict with one another, and compliance issues and the business's rule sets may crimp the ability to apply virtualization enterprise-wide. Lastly, the infrastructure—the storage environment, network connections and back-up procedures—needs to be assessed to address potential compatibility.

"IBM takes a holistic approach to virtualization, recognizing that it is part of a larger IT Optimization to align the IT capabilities more tightly with business objectives. IBM brings a formalized, managed approach to virtualization implementation to ensure that clients reap maximum benefit."

That's where the IBM Server Services group can help. IBM first introduced virtualization to mainframe installations more than 40 years ago and today is the leader in bringing virtualization to the x86 server environment. IBM takes a holistic approach to virtualization, recognizing that it is part of a larger IT Optimization to align the IT capabilities more tightly with business objectives. IBM brings a formalized, managed approach to virtualization implementation to ensure that clients reap maximum benefit.

Without careful planning, organizations may find themselves dealing with headaches that they hadn't bargained for. For instance, businesses may discover that they have purchased software licenses that can't be utilized or that they have merely substituted virtual server sprawl for physical server sprawl. More seriously, they could find that their actual experience fails to live up to the initial promise to management.

Technical support from start to finish

To be certain that virtualization delivers on its promise, IBM VMware Server Virtualization Services utilizes a three-step methodology:

1. Solution Framing. IBM makes a readiness assessment of the client's data center and business environment in order to build a sound case for change to support the virtualization initiative. Since virtualization introduces the shared computing model to the enterprise, an IBM architect must evaluate what changes are necessary. For instance, a model where various business units have their own capital budgets to purchase their own segregated IT resources could limit the potential of virtualization. The IBM architect would make recommendations in this regard.
   
   The architect also evaluates and makes recommendations on back-end infrastructure components, including storage, network, back-up, systems management, security and time synchronization to make certain they are in harmony with the virtualization products. IBM then uses its CiRBA Data Center Intelligence tool to understand various systems configurations, utilization rates and workloads in order to calculate the size of a potential virtualization platform. (CiRBA Data Center Intelligence is a world class tool and winner for “best of breed” at VMworld 2007 in San Francisco.)
   
   At the end of this phase, the client receives a report that includes a readiness assessment, high-level transition plan and business case that includes return on investment and total cost of ownership analyses.
2. Plan and Design. To say that virtualization changes an IT environment is an understatement. This phase is designed to ensure that the virtualization platform can co-exist and interact with the existing infrastructure. Naming and security standards are established, the disk and network structure is defined, system elements are fine-tuned and a virtual infrastructure is designed to satisfy each customer's unique requirements.
3. Implementation. Adoption begins with building a pilot virtualized environment as documented during the detailed design phase. The pilot is tested, and the results are analyzed to make certain that the physical and virtual environments operate according to the design. At this point modifications can be made to ensure performance is as expected. Once the pilot is complete, virtualization is introduced into the production environment, and workloads are migrated. Throughout the process, IBM actively involves the client staff in order to empower them with skills that otherwise would only be attainable through extensive theoretical training.

VMware licenses purchased from IBM include 24x7 remote telephone-based support, enabling clients to log VMware fault calls with the IBM service desk. The support is sold in one year increments and can be renewed or extended at any time.

IBM support doesn't end with completed implementation. IBM offers two post-installation support options―operational support and full remote support―that can be customized to meet clients' unique needs. The operational support option includes a monthly health check-up of 30 hours of engineering support plus an optional four-hour emergency service. The health check-up captures system information, such as utilization rates for processors and memory, updates of software versions, error logs and outage reports. Organizations that require a greater level of monitoring and management assistance can choose the full suite of IBM Remote Managed Infrastrucxture services. This option teams up the client staff with IBM's support staff to address issues ranging from provisioning of new services to performance and capacity management. The full remote management option includes defined service level agreements (SLAs) and target return to operation (RTO) times, giving the client confidence that it will meet its commitment to business units.

So why should organizations turn to IBM VMware Server Virtualization Services to help plan their virtualization journey? As VMware's largest global systems integration partner, IBM VMware Services has more than 200 VMware-certified professionals worldwide. A team of that size assures clients the in-depth technical skills covering servers, storage, network and systems management across heterogeneous environments as well as the global delivery organization that they require. IBM has experience managing more than 206,000 of its own servers worldwide and has successfully implemented virtualization in its own data centers.

Virtualization is a process that IBM knows better than anyone. Let IBM VMware Services get your organization off on the right foot on your virtualization journey.