RackForce: Hyper-V is the wings of our next leap

Bkjia.com exclusive translation] The RackForce network uses Microsoft Hyper-V to improve real-time scalability. Microsoft's virtualization tools enable a great deal of IDC services.

From the perspective of the hosted service provider RackForce network, Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization technology just announced will be the wings of its business strategy to make a leap.

RackForce is an application service provider that provides host hosting and virtual host servers for e-commerce enterprises. They have been committed to providing customers with application upgrades without interrupting services. Today, the company has already achieved a certain level in this respect, but the emergence of Hyper-V makes it quickly reach a new height.

RackForce previously only provided services at the operating system layer, using its dynamic dedicated server DDS) to provide users with a virtual space on a physical host. customers need to load and manage their own application systems. But now they want to be able to provide the DDS-V, namely the Virtual DDS, to free data storage from the limitations of the Storage Area Network SAN), allowing instant application scaling.

Given Hyper-V's support for SAN, RackForce can now expand its platform to provide more processing capabilities without worrying about moving or copying data.

"We have introduced a SAN-based model," said Tim Dufour, CEO of RackForce. "Supporting SAN is incredible. It enables us to move in a few seconds and instantly implement scaling.

In addition, Microsoft's new Virtual Machine management tool will enable RackForce to centrally discover and manage resources in any location in its upcoming GigCenter data center, rather than just a single DDS platform. RackForce currently has three data centers in the water and electricity industry.

Currently, RackForce has 2500 server customers, of which 60% are running in a virtualized environment under the DDS platform. The other 40% uses traditional dedicated servers. 60% fewer than half of users who use virtualization run Windows.

Dufour said that other major improvements on Hyper-V are to eliminate the restrictions on processor support and eliminate the 4 gb ram restrictions imposed by virtual servers before Hyper-V. Removing these restrictions means that the customer will not be "too big" when trying to scale, he said. RackForce runs Hyper-V on an IBM x39504 quad-core processor server and stacks four machines to implement a 16-processor and 64-core platform.

Dufour also said that Hyper-V will help drive RackForce progress, and Microsoft's virtualization platform still lacks some necessary elements, such as a complete set of installation and setup tools. RackForce will provide its instantaneous scaling service through its website to meet users' needs, but the company will have to bear the corresponding fees on its own. Currently, RackForce has to implement its own integration.

However, a major feature of Microsoft's first version of Hyper-V is dynamic migration. "This feature is very important and we look forward to it ." Dufour. "If we want to upgrade and scale our processor from the current x3950 platform, there will be no downtime in our entire migration process ".

Dufour knows how extravagant this migration is, because RackForce can now achieve dynamic migration based on the Linux virtualization platform. "But our technical staff told us that Hyper-V has made great progress, which impressed them-you know, these guys are typical Linux technicians ".

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