Virtualization 2.0 in the name of the data center

The best way to raise your focus is to label a technology or noun as a date. For example, although few people can say exactly what Web 2.0 is, Web 2.0 has become a popular concept.

Virtualization 2.0 is designed to virtualize infrastructure

As virtualization technology becomes the focus of all people talking, in February 2007, IDC, at its virtualization conference, put forward the concept of "virtualization 2.0", that virtualization should not only be on the server side, but also from the "infrastructure" level to achieve the virtualization of the data center, the PC, storage , the network is included in the scope of virtualization.

At the time, John Humphreys, an analyst at IDC's Enterprise virtualization division, said that in the next 18 months virtualization would enter the 2.0 era. For most enterprises, virtualization will be used as an important tool for business continuity and disaster backup.

Humphreys, for example, believes that some IT departments have begun to experience desktop virtualization, which makes it a fad to apply thin clients at the enterprise level. There is even the power to drive virtualization to boost mobility, such as using virtualization software on laptops and smartphones.

IDC predicts that by 2010 the number of servers deployed worldwide will reach 45 million, providing a great opportunity for virtualization technology that enables server consolidation, but there is one more problem to be solved, that is security.

However, at present, the enterprise may not have too much need to consider security issues, integration is the most important to solve today. According to IDC data, in a typical enterprise, the ratio of the administrator to the server is about 1:20, but in a virtual environment, this proportion of the number is likely to reach 1:200. This is the glamour of virtualization.

Solution of the 2.0 era

Today, whether it is IBM's proposed "Blue Cloud Computing", "new data center, or HP's" next-generation data center ", with no exception, is from the overall height of the data center, from the flexible, dynamic allocation of data center computing, storage, network and other resources of the point of view, Implement a new type of data center.

Unlike IBM, which uses mainframe consolidation and blue cloud computing deployments to implement new data centers, Egenera (Agile) advocates the use of pan (processing area networks) to simplify computing architectures. The company is often considered a blade server company, but from their own perspective, they prefer to be viewed as "reducing operational costs and operational complexity for enterprise data centers," a virtualized data center solution company.

The main reason is that its product BladeFrame system, is the use of disk-free, anonymous, high-speed switching characteristics of the blade server, its Pan Manager software allows the system to automatically reposition and resources on demand. Peter Manca, its chief technology director, told reporters that the Egenera Company believes that to achieve the goal of Virtualization 2.0, relying on a pure software solution is not going to solve all the problems.

In his view, server virtualization technology can only reduce the number of physical servers, but it may not be able to reduce the cost and complexity of management.

Clearly, the goal of Egenera is to try to simplify the architecture and management of the data center with a software-and-hardware-integrated solution for existing VMware, Xen, and Microsoft-made solutions.

It should be acknowledged that the concept of Virtualization 2.0 will be the direction of data center efforts, but it is difficult to determine what kind of solution can better help companies achieve such a vision.