Virtualization as the preferred reduction of data center complexity

The high cost and complexity of data centers has become a well-known fact, data center virtualization has also become a hot topic, but the data center is faced with how serious the problem, virtualization in the data center of the application of the heat to what extent but not many people can clearly say. Symantec Inc. released a data center survey on November 8, 2007, which surveyed data center heads of 2000 large public institutions around the world. The report says data center leaders are starting to adopt virtualization and server consolidation strategies to address current data center complexities.

The challenges facing data centers

The survey shows that the challenges facing data centers come mainly from stringent internal service-level agreements, growing data center costs, and staff placement difficulties. Cost growth is not synchronized with data center growth, and stringent service-level agreements require data centers to provide high levels of operational speed, flexibility, and availability. Once it performance is not up to the expected level, enterprise business is affected.

The complexity, heterogeneity, and persistent technical flaws of data centers can cause enterprises to face difficulties in meeting service level agreements. Because of cost constraints, finding qualified IT staff to understand the real problem of the business is trickier than staffing problems. In response to these challenges, data center spending has continued to grow. The survey found that 2000 companies worldwide spend more than 6.6 billion dollars a year to manage data center complexity. 52% of the IT staff surveyed showed that their data centers were currently understaffed, and 69% of the IT staff surveyed said their data center staff grew at least 5% per year, while 11% per cent increased by more than 20% a year. According to the survey, the average cost growth in the world over the past two years has been conservatively estimated at 7%. Businesses have had to spend most of their budget on ensuring that business continues to operate, limiting inputs to innovation and business growth.

In addition, most of the IT staff surveyed said the data center staff problem is also a common challenge. 86% of the IT staff surveyed struggled to find qualified candidates, and 68% said the placement was challenging because the data centers were too complex to manage and 60% thought there were limitations to their skills.

Virtualization reduces complexity

Server virtualization and consolidation is the preferred cost containment strategy for most of the IT staff surveyed, especially in the United States. 90% of the IT staff surveyed explored the virtualization of the server, 50% did implement the virtualization strategy; 90% discussed server consolidation, 58% did implement a consolidation strategy; 75% The IT staff surveyed consider storage virtualization as an alternative solution (shown in Figure 2).

As data center leaders increasingly manage cost growth through virtualization, the tools and technologies to manage physical and virtual environments more consistently and comprehensively are clearly needed. These solutions help data center Professionals master the growing complexity of data centers and respond to increasingly stringent service level agreements.

The head of the data center surveyed said that it was necessary to standardize beforehand to manage data center complexity. Symantec recommends that enterprises standardize on the single level of infrastructure software that supports all major applications, databases, processors and storage, and server hardware platforms.

"According to the Data Center survey report, the challenges facing the current data centers are becoming more severe due to service level agreements, data growth, staffing challenges and costs," said Kris Hagerman, president of Symantec Data Center management. Services provided by data center professionals are also more important to their business. But at the same time, they tend to be helpless in coping with the complexities of the data center explosion. Data center owners can migrate data centers by standardizing on a common software infrastructure while managing the cost and complexity of growth. ”

Figure 1 virtual machines are easy to manage, high performance, increase productivity, etc. are the main reasons for users to choose virtualization technology.

Figure 2 A considerable number of people surveyed have considered or implemented a server virtualization consolidation strategy.

About Symantec Data Center survey Report

Symantec Data Center Investigation report, was conducted by Ziff Davis Company in September 2007, the quantity and quality of research. The study surveyed the heads of data centers in 2000 large public institutions around the world, includes two major branches of research: a survey conducted in 14 countries and regions, face-to-face research teams in San Francisco, New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, one-on-one telephone interviews in Mumbai and Singapore, and a conference call in Canada. A total of 71 data center principals were involved in the research group, and 800 people participated in and completed network research. The research focuses on data center cost, personnel placement and data center strategy and technology.