Speeding toward next-gen virtualizationMuch like the new generation of cars,

the next phase of virtualization offers

greater efficiency and intelligence.

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Virtualization as we’ve known it

Business needs signal upgrades

Break through network barriers

Accelerate application deployment

Enhance access with simplified storage

Get going

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Table Of Contents

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Server virtualization technology over the last decade has remade the data center.

Enabling x86 computers to run multiple operating systems and applications — and

separating logical servers from the physical boxes on which they run — virtualization has

made IT infrastructure simpler, more automated and more efficient.

Server virtualization has saved IT billions of dollars on both capital and operating

expenses by relying on fewer physical servers, but ones that are more efficient and being

used to the max. That means data centers don’t have to be as big, which saves on power

and cooling. Server virtualization has also made data centers more reliable and better

equipped to enable IT to recover from disasters. Just as important, server virtualization

has been a key enabler in the inexorable march to cloud-computing infrastructures,

whether they be public, private or hybrid models.

Clearly, the benefits of server virtualization have been substantial, and they’re ongoing.

But even as improving technology continues to add benefits, they’re beginning to run into

inherent limits. Server virtualization is only the first step to fundamentally transforming

the data center. Enterprises need to address all the other layers of data-center operations

to complete the transformation.

The question then becomes, where do we go from here?

Server virtualization will continue to deliver

incremental improvements, the same way

carmakers offer faster, better- handling,

more efficient cars with each new model

year. Server virtualization is just one aspect

of creating the next-generation data center.

To create a truly better car, or a truly better

data center, you need to look at all the

elements, not just continued, incremental

improvements in the areas where you’re

already making progress.

(cont. on next page)

Virtualization As We’ve Known It

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The next generation of virtualization opportunities won’t just be more of the same, but will

extend the benefits of abstracting hardware to homogeneous pools of physical devices

and then slice and dice them as needed for optimal use throughout the data center. Just as

modern car buyers increasingly value new functionality like integrated satellite navigation

systems, digital infotainment and telematics systems over pure performance, the future of

virtualization lies in bringing greater efficiency and intelligence to networks, applications and

storage to create a truly software-defined data center.

Source: VMware

What organizations can save in

energy costs by consolidating servers

How much time organizations shave

off provisioning new servers

80% 70%

benefits of server virtualization

Virtualization As We’ve Known It

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The widespread adoption of server virtualization has revolutionized the provisioning and

management of computing power, saving enterprises billions of dollars. However, the rest of

the data center has not kept pace with those advancements.

As businesses bump up against bottlenecks in IT systems, they’re looking to virtualize

networks, applications and storage to open the path to simplified, automated, less-expensive

data centers. Trends such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), big data, mobile computing and

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are raising business expectations about what technology

can do, forcing IT to embrace new paradigms to avoid being left behind.

As businesses take full advantage of the low-hanging fruit of server virtualization’s relatively

easy implementation and now-obvious benefits, they can use that success as a proof

of concept for extending the approach throughout the data center. The next three big

opportunities for virtualization in the enterprise include:

1. Network virtualization

2. Application virtualization

3. Storage virtualization

Network virtualization becomes a priority when the enterprise no longer finds it acceptable

to wait weeks to manually provision new workloads with network connectivity or change

network configurations. It becomes essential when the network needs to quickly scale and

the enterprise can’t afford needlessly expensive

proprietary hardware.

It’s time to implement application virtualization

when scheduled downtime for mission-critical

software is no longer acceptable, much less the

risk of not having access to those applications in

the event of a disaster. Application virtualization

often finds its first toehold when new application-

development projects need to be rapidly tested.

(cont. on next page)

Business Needs Signal Upgrades

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Meanwhile, even though the cost per unit of storage continues to fall, the rise of big

data encourages enterprises to store more and more information. That makes storage

virtualization’s cost savings an increasingly attractive option.

Source: Ovum

growth market average

(7 countries including Brazil, Russia, India)

79.5%

average across 17 divergent markets

57.1%

mature market average

(10 countries including U.S.,

Germany, U.K)

44.4%

a survey asked employees if they took part in byod

Business Needs Signal Upgrades

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By creating a complete software-driven abstraction layer that reproduces a physical

network, network virtualization — sometimes referred to as software-defined networking,

although they’re not precisely the same — does everything a physical network can do, but

with the same kinds of operational benefits and hardware independence that transformed

the world of servers.

By decoupling networking components from the underlying physical

infrastructure, organizations can rapidly provision and configure

networks of any size and complexity without having to run out and

touch the physical switches, ports and routers. Remote management

and monitoring allows for greater control and visibility into what’s

going on across the network, which can boost security by preventing

unauthorized nodes from accessing sensitive data.

All of this automation frees IT administrators from wasting time on

repetitive, manual drudgery, and reduces human errors that can slow

performance or even cause network outages.

Virtual networking can also cut capital costs by turning the physical

network into a simple packet-forwarding backplane running on

inexpensive, industry-standard commodity hardware — helping to

avoid proprietary vendor lock-ins.

Break Through Network Barriers

From the end-host

perspective, workloads

see no difference. Yet

network operations are

completely transformed,

enabling unprecedented

automation of network

provisioning, deployment

and maintenance.

the two sides of network virtualization

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Running enterprise applications such as databases, ERP, CRM, email, collaboration, Java

middleware and business intelligence on virtual machines promises a variety of benefits.

They include increased standardization, better availability with less scheduled downtime and

simplified disaster recovery. Of course, the cost savings that come from

consolidating infrastructure can also be significant.

Virtualized applications also make it easier to manage performance and

capacity, improving quality of life for technicians by allowing scheduled

maintenance to be done anytime without taking the apps offline.

Virtualization also offers a more reliable and realistic testing environment

that helps speed complex development projects.

The biggest benefits, of course, come with virtualizing the most important

Tier 1 applications, along with proprietary applications for specific

industries. IT leaders are often wary of moving these mission-critical

applications to virtual machines, but technical advances and performance

improvements continue to lower the risk.

Accelerate Application Deployment

• Scheduled maintenance

anytime

• Easier planning for

disaster recovery

• Elegant rollbacks when

problems occur

Source: Gartner

3 advantages of application virtualization

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Like other kinds of virtualization, storage

virtualization abstracts storage resources from the

physical devices to create a pool of flexible, efficient,

reliable and highly scalable shared storage for

virtual machines. Pooling of inexpensive industry-

standard commodity hardware allows storage to be

automatically addressed, managed and optimized

regardless of the type — solid-state drives and hard

disk drives — or physical location.

Storage virtualization can save up to 50 percent in

storage TCO, a critical advantage as the rise of big

data leads enterprises to store ever-larger amounts

of data, even if they’re not yet sure how they plan to

actually use all that information.

A fundamentally better way to manage storage resources, storage virtualization

dramatically reduces the capital and operational cost and complexity of storage

infrastructure.

Enhance Access With Simplified Storage

5 benefits of storage virtualization

1. Improve storage resource utilization and flexibility to reduce

wasted storage.

2. Enable provisioning that is rapid and dynamic, spinning up

storage as fast as a virtual machine.

3. Simplify storage management, including automatic replication

and de-duplication.

4. Simplify day-to-day IT operations, including OS patching and

driver requirements.

5. Increase application uptime.

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The speed of business is moving faster than ever. Growing at an amazing pace, server

virtualization has moved key components of IT infrastructure into the fast lane, but many

other areas are stuck in traffic and simply not

keeping up.

Applying virtualization to the network, storage

and applications is the single most effective way

to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency

and agility. Enterprises — and small and midsize

businesses, too — want to move away from a reliance

on expensive proprietary hardware throughout their

IT infrastructure, and virtualization has proven to be

the best way to do that.

It simply does not make sense to limit virtualization’s

benefits of lowered costs and increased scalability to

computing power alone. The technology is in place.

The needs and benefits are clear.

The time is right to implement the next generation of

virtualization — in networking, in tier-one applications and in

storage — key elements of the software-defined data center.

For more information, visit the software-defined data center

page on VMware.com.

Get Going

• Reduce data center costs

• Bring new applications

online quickly

• Increase availability

• Centralize storage

• Complete application

availability in the event

of a server failure

• Improve backups

• Strengthen disaster

recovery

virtualization goals