Computing Infrastructure and Storage System Virtualization

Nowadays corporate information systems shall solve more and more tasks which imposes increased requirements to computing resource qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Growing demand in DPC computing capacity of the enterprise are limited by insufficient square to deploy equipment, insufficient engineering infrastructure to ensure quality power supply and maintain environmental parameters. Growth of system complexity imposes high requirements to maintenance. DPC construction often requires high service level (SLA) and if recently only large enterprises could afford to use the majority of technologies in their solutions then nowadays the virtualization technologies allow reaching high operation parameters for small and medium businesses as well. Virtualization technologies allow effective solutions of the majority of DPC tasks.

Data processing center virtualization is a base for further DPC transformation from a set of computing and transport capacity to service-oriented platform with flexible distribution of resources depending on requirements of every application. Virtualization technologies allow application and data abstraction from physical IT infrastructure resources working more with terms like "service", "service platform", "virtual architecture" than "server", "disc array" and "switch".

The key characteristics of virtual server media are mechanisms of resource consolidation, resource use efficiency improvement and improvement of availability characteristics, information system scaling, improved maintenance efficiency and reduction of the cost of ownership.

Due to high controllability level and flexible resource distribution between the applications, virtualization of computing infrastructure allows DPC owners to provide computing resources and storage resources to users as a service. This approach grants enterprises a possibility to fully or partially cease using own DPC and use external services to process data and pay only for consumed computing power.

DPC virtualization ensures certain advantages of the business:

  • possibility of fast and efficient deployment of new business applications and corporate services owing to:
    • separation of physical devices into logical ones irrespective of controlled virtual contexts allocating resources depending on needs of every application;
    • simplified network topology, possibility to automate resource allocation process for new applications, reduce administrative labor costs and reduce possibility of faults;
  • fast recovery of DPC component operation in case of emergency, possibility to execute technological operations in DPC continuing to provide services to users due to:
    • isolation of virtual context operation, localization of negative consequences of emergency or error inside the context where the problem occurred;
    • possibility to transmit virtual context operation from one device/ chassis to another in case of emergency or necessity of technological operations;
  • reduction of DPC IT infrastructure cost of ownership due to:
    • reduction of DPC equipment number;
    • reduction of space required to allocate the equipment;
    • increased recycling level of the existing equipment;
    • reduction of expenses of DPC power supply and conditioning;
    • reduction of costs of engineering infrastructure.

Open Technologies has got a Competency Center the laboratories of which allow designing and demonstration of innovation solutions using technologies of server resource virtualization and complex testing in other information technology fields.