Archive for the 'Virtualization' Category

5 Cloud Computing Statistics You May Find Surprising

By Olafur Ingthorsson on November 30, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Virtualization. 1 Comment

Guest article by Lauren Toomey, Cloudspectator

Cloud Computing has become one of the most popular topics of conversation among the IT community.  There have been countless polls and surveys conducted to find out more understanding on the market information and industry trends.  Here are some of the most interesting statistics from the past few months.

1. $150 Billion: The size of the Cloud Computing Market by 2013.
This amount comes from a study done by Gartner.  The number may seem like a high estimate to some, but it is consistent (or even low) compared to other estimates.  Merrill Lynch’s research predicts the cloud computing market to be worth $160 Billion by the same year.  With many businesses just recently starting to feel the pressure to move into cloud computing, it is not surprising that experts are predicting the market to grow at such a high rate in the next few years.

2. $750 Million: The Amount Amazon.com’s AWS expects to earn in 2011.
Amazon’s Web Services has provided businesses with an infrastructure web services platform based in the cloud.  Their offering, which started in 2006, hit revenue of around $500 Million in 2010. This estimate is based on research done by analysts at UBS, a financial analyst firm based in Switzerland.  Amazon’s web services continue to dominate the Infrastructure as a Service market in users and revenue; but with new and innovative cloud providers entering the market, could a change be in the near future?

3. 7/10: Companies using cloud services that will move new applications to the cloud.
This statistic is based on a study done by Mimecast, a company that offers Software as a Service enterprise e-mail.  Many companies start their transition into the cloud with a small “trial;” testing it with only some of their infrastructure, applications, or data.  A large portion of the industry growth in the next few years will be from companies who are happy with their “trial period” and are ready to further transition their business into the cloud.

4. 54%: Amount of respondents citing Security as their top concern for transitioning to the cloud.
This number is according to a recent survey conducted by LinkedIn with 7052 respondents.  Security is a top deterrent for many businesses looking to use cloud computing in their company.   This is especially true for industries that use and store sensitive data such as the financial and healthcare industries.  A few years ago, these types of companies would never think using the cloud would be a safe method to store all their data.  However, cloud providers are now able to become compliant with numerous security regulations, such as HIPAA, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS.  This allows these types of industries with highly secure data to feel confident their data is safe when using cloud computing.  In fact, in a study conducted by Mimecast, 57% of respondents actually felt that cloud computing increased their security when compared to traditional methods for computing and data back up.

5. 60%: Server workloads that will be virtualized by 2014.
This prediction comes from research conducted by Gartner.  This is a staggering percentage, especially when compared to 2008, when only 12% of server workloads were virtualized.  A business virtualizing their workload into the clouds has multiple benefits.  First, they are saving themselves the trouble of having to purchase and store physical hardware, which is costly and inefficient.  Second, companies can reduce their carbon footprint by outsourcing their workload to data centers.  Many new data centers have state-of-the-art equipment and procedures to reduce consumption.  This is particularly vital when considering all the energy intensive processes a data center conducts, such as cooling down servers and keeping them up and running 24/7.  Therefore, using green data centers is more environmentally friendly than housing your own servers.

 

Cloud computing has been around for more than a decade, but I think that 2011 really marks the year it is becoming widely adopted.  Consumers and businesses alike are realizing that the cloud offers a variety of solutions to problems that plague computer-users daily.  Small and medium sized businesses are the largest growing segment in cloud computing.  Companies that have not switched yet are feeling pressure to do so, and those who have already are seeing the benefits.  With the year 2012 on the horizon, I wonder what new trends and innovations the cloud computing industry will bring?

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Virtualization and Cloud Computing – as a Service

By Olafur Ingthorsson on August 29, 2011 in Cloud Computing and Virtualization. 0 Comments

A guest article from the team at Witsbits AB

Introduction

As the IT environment becomes increasingly more complex with new technologies and applications, IT administrators are searching for simplified and cost-effective means of delivery computing resources, required for employees to do their daily work. Virtualization technologies have provided an additional layer of complexity many small businesses do not understand, nor truly have the resources to deploy internally, without expensive training and dedicated personal resources. So how can small companies  (0-99 employees) truly benefit from virtualization without incurring the additional costs and training needed ?

Problem

While there are dominant providers of public cloud services, and major host providers encouraging companies to host their applications externally, there still remain many small companies with the requirement of keeping certain data within their own IT department, from small accounting and medical services firms to financial and legal departments requiring  regulatory compliance, as well as software development companies that prefer internal application testing.

Click to enlarge

Internal and private virtualization infrastructure solutions are also often preferred for reasons of security, quicker and more convenient testing of software patches and compliance to local regulations per country. An example here includes data transfers that must remain within a particular country, region and company. The compliance  and security concerns are of particular interest to  media, financial, medical, military and high security related companies, that want to keep their data internally secured.

Microsoft, Citrix and Vmware

It should also be noted, that although Microsoft, Citrix and Vmware provide feature rich functionalities and free virtualization for basic use,  these solutions require a dedicated IT administrator with virtualization expertise plus additional time / cost to install and manage the platforms, as well as provide the regularly required maintenance.

To quote an analysts and IT consultant in the US, working with small and medium sized businesses “ It is still a pain to build a virtualized infrastructure, today “.   There are over 1 million companies with  fewer then one hundred employees in US. (US census 2007)

In particular for these small businesses, infrastructure management software is too complicated.

So how does Witsbits fit into this marketplace, today ?

Witsbits provides an entry level virtualization and cloud management platform – as a service. Customers, and IT consultants that support small businesses, use Witsbits services for the management of  internal and private virtual infrastructures.

Benefits ?

Witsbits’ management platform is set up in minutes, is software maintenance free for the customer, and very simple to use via a web browser. Pricing is based on a “pay as you go” ( vRam under management) payment model. All data, applications and storage policies remain inside the company and behind the firewall.

The users log into the Witsbits console for the management of their own virtualized infrastructure, and  IT consultants use Witsbits to manage virtualized environments across multiple customer sites at much lower costs, as the web based centralized console is used for one or a multiple of dispersed physical servers running virtual machines. The traditional upgrade per number of physical servers under centralized management is not required.

The newest release of  Witsbits is scheduled for early September.

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Mobile virtualization supports mobile cloud computing

By Olafur Ingthorsson on December 22, 2010 in Mobile Cloud Computing and Virtualization. 0 Comments

Is seems that some of the latest buzz concerning mobile cloud computing is handset, or smartphone, virtualization. Creating completely separate profiles through virtualizing the handset opens completely new possibilities in terms of usage scenarios. This includes, for example, to integrate both a business profile and a personal profile in the same device – without coinciding any information or applications. Storing copies of the profile(s) in the Cloud means that users can replicate and shift between devices – still maintaining the same profile and keep a high level of data assurance by storing the data in the Cloud.

Last year, VMware introduced its mobile cloud platform, called Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP), that’s aimed at supporting separate personal and corporate profiles on the same handset, e.g. a employee owned handset. Each profile runs in a completely isolated container so that OS’s, applications and data belonging to each profile, personal or corporate, are only accessible within the appropriate profile. So, running a hypervisor on the handset directly will isolate the profiles and create a virtualized infrastructure.

VMware recently announced a partnership with LG Electronics about running the MVP on a Android enabled LG smartphone. With rising smartphone sales, the need for a combined work-personal smartphone becomes increasingly stronger – as most users prefer to carry only one handset. Using virtulization at the handset level seems to solve many of the associated security challenges and risks as work related and personal profiles should be completely separated and isolated. Normally, this would include apps, contacts and data.

Another important player in the mobile virtualization domain, OK Labs, developed a “Microvisor” (its mobile hypervisor) that was installed in the Motorola Evoke QA4 in 2009 – probably making it the world’s first virtualized smartphone.

Otherwise, the three main benefits of mobile virtualization, as identified by some experts, include:

  • Convergence of corporate/personal profile
  • Smartphone capabilities on feature phones (or device commoditization)
  • Faster development of new phone variant and fragmentation reduction

Other important benefits sometimes mentioned are lower cost phones through faster development times and increased security through isolated user profiles. Both of these seem obvious benefits.

I foresee that in 2011 we will see some big announcements and further steps towards mobile virtualization. In the race for faster, better, cheaper and more secure handsets, mobile virtualization is certain to become an important element. Mobile virtualization also extends to netbooks like iPads, further blurring the distinction between typical desktop virtualization on PCs and mobile devices. I think its likely that virtualization vendors will in fact integrate mobile virtualization features into their existing desktop virtualization product lines.

In the meantime, I would welcome your views and comments.




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Avoiding cloud computing lock-in

By Olafur Ingthorsson on October 25, 2010 in Cloud API, Cloud Computing and Virtualization. 4 Comments

There is considerable concern among enterprises that by migrating some of their infrastructure or processes to the Cloud, they will experience the dreaded lock-in situation. Selecting a particular vendor cloud platform that is built on proprietary APIs and formats means that enterprises can face a lock-in situation which will make it much harder for them if they, a later stage, want to withdraw from the vendor platform, either because they want to bring the infrastructure/processes back into their premises or they want to select another vendor or service provider. This is very evident when it comes to server virtualization formats as key enablers in the context of cloud computing frameworks.

Although some public cloud providers, like Amazon AWS, originally used a open source server virtualization format to create their cloud computing platforms , have tweaked and configured the format so that in reality it has become proprietary. Amazon AWS originally used the freely available, open source Xen hypervisor format to build its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), but today uses the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that is significantly different from the original Xen format, although Amazon has not disclosed the exact modifications. In fact, Amazon’s AMI is only meant for use in the EC2 cloud – enterprises cannot use it in their internal data centers.

Similarly, VMware has its Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) format and Microsoft developed the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) for running multiple instances on a single host computer. None of these are interoperable, meaning that enterprises cannot easily transfer workloads from one format to another, substantiating the lock-in fear and creating a stumbling block for cloud migration. There are vendors that help enterprises convert their existing virtual machines into e.g. AMI workloads, and vice versa, for a fee, including RightScale, Fast-Scale and Elastra.

VMware launced its vCloud Express initiative last year to make it easier for enterprises already running VMware virtualized infrastructure to extend their in-house resources to a cloud service provider that have implemented vCloud Express as a simple service platform. Already, several service providers are offering cloud services built on vCloud Express, including Terremark, RightScale and Hosting.com.

Microsoft is trying to forestall VMware’s dominance in the virtualization market by proclaiming its Hyper-V virtual machine format in the Azure cloud and by  encouraging enterprises to adopt the format in their internal data centers, thereby creating a homogeneous hybrid Windows cloud.

To address the cloud computing lock-in situation that enterprises are facing, the DTMF has issued a vendor neutral Open Virtualization Format (OVF) designed to enable cross-platform mobility of virtual machines over the network. A virtual machine based on the OFV format can be moved under VMware, Microsoft or Citrix hypervisors that understand the format. Unfortunately however, it seems that these vendors only support a one-way transfer of machine images, that is from OVF to their own proprietary formats, but not the other way around. Why are vendors reluctant to allow convert their proprietary formats back into OVF? I many ways it’s understandable as they are protecting their significant investments in developing their cloud platforms. However, it is likely that new tools or start-ups will emerge that enable conversion of the vendor formats into OVF or other familiar virtual machine formats. If cloud computing service providers start opening up their current platforms and support interoperability, we will see the fear of lock-in situations start diminishing

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Will virtualization become less important in cloud computing?

By Olafur Ingthorsson on August 30, 2010 in Cloud Computing and Virtualization. 1 Comment

It’ generally acknowledged that VMware are the leaders in virtualization technology. Products like the the vSpere has probably been installed in more data centers than any ofther virtualization platform. Not to minimize the importance of other platforms, like the Citrix XenServer and Linux KVM, the vSphere is the market leading virtualization platform that together with its strong installed base and head-start set VMware in a comfortable position for developing its cloud computing strategy. And then the question emerges – how is VMware cloud computing strategy actually playing out?

Well, first of all we know that by enabling multiple logical server instances on a single physical server, virtualization is usually seen as one of the fundamental enablers of cloud computing. But exactly how important is virtualization as a cloud computing enabler? By many, the importance of virtualization is considered to become less significant when cloud-based application platforms mature to the point where applications are built and deployed without any reference to current notions of servers and operating systems. Developers using Plaform-as-Services, like Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure, are never going to have to think about virtualized infrastructure. The same goes with Software-as-a-Service. So as companies migrate services to the cloud, they are less likely to purchase VMware’s vSphere virtualization platform, unless they are going to establish their own cloud computing environment.

VMware has unofficially acknowledged this transformation. Their CEO, Paul Maritz, speaking on the 2010 GigaOM Structure conference, said that “the cloud at the infrastructure level is the new hardware”. What Mr. Maritz means is that “as the cloud infrastructure becomes more complex, or hardened, there is a point where we will stop seeing the details behind the infrastructure making it agnostic” and, hopefully, interconnected clouds from multiple cloud providers (federated clouds). All this of course is heavily dependent upon standardization work. Several bodies are now working on cloud standards, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which have formed a Focus Group for that purpose

So where does all this leave VMware when it comes to their cloud initiative, especially if virtualization is to be a given thing – and ultimately more restricted to cloud provider and large company data centers? Well, VMware is already offering cloud platforms for various needs, both for public and private clouds. Their cloud vCloud Express platform was built for IaaS providers in particular, to offer services to end-users and to create PaaS services.  Already, it seems that VMware, e.g. through its partnership with SalesForce around VMforce, is moving more into the realm of PaaS by its Java Cloud enterprise offering. In the longer term, it is likely that virtualization will become less important when it comes to PaaS offerings and public clouds, while it probably will last longer in private cloud environments.

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Virtualization and cloud computing

By Olafur Ingthorsson on January 12, 2010 in Virtualization. 0 Comments

One of the primary characteristics of cloud computing is the virtualization of IT resources, network servers in particular – running multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine. Delivering economical, virtualized, elastic and utility based, or pay-as-you-go, services is in essence what cloud computing is. Many organizations are already using virtualization in their data centers to rationalize and support optimal utilization strategies. The dynamic and transparent allocation of IT resources through virtualization and monitoring using “hypervisors” are indeed fundamental, although not prerequisite, technologies of todays data centers for many businesses. Some large public cloud providers, like AWS, are utilizing heavily customized versions of the Xen open source virtualization hypervisor while others, including regular businesses, use less customized or out of the box solutions like the VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer.

Below is a great video explaining virtualization in simple terms

Still, virtualization and cloud computing should not be used as synonyms, as seems quite common. On the contrary, there is a lot more to be added, as pointed out in my previous post “Characteristics of cloud computing“, for a true cloud computing adoption. Other key issues, such as automation of services, e.g. service provisioning and support/troubleshooting and utility based, or pay-as-you-go, pricing mechanism are also key parts of cloud computing. Specific cloud computing software solutions, such as the open source Eucalyptus, can be built on top of virtualization supports this type of functionality that enable organizations to create multiple clouds inside and outside of their data center environment and even support integration to third-party public cloud providers, e.g. AWS EC2, for a hybrid cloud layout. Antoher example is the VMware vCloud Express IaaS offering that is in many ways similar to Eucalyptus, providing on-demand, pay-as-you-go infrastructure.

Finally, is should not be forgotten that doing cloud computing is usually an evolutionary process rather than revolutionary. Businesses can start out taking small steps without unreasonably risking their sensitive data or systems.

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