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| IN THIS ISSUE |
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Is There a Virtual Appliance in Your Future? |
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Desktop Virtualization Begins to Emerge |
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Needed: Virtualization-Specific Management Tools |
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Related Bio-IT Stories |
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Is There a Virtual Appliance in Your Future?
By Salvatore Salamone
This summer, I heard what I thought sounded like an IT oxymoron: "virtual appliance." When I think of an appliance, I imagine a dedicated piece of hardware that pops into your network to handle a specific task such as data compression, filtering, or encryption. So I was perplexed. What exactly is a virtual appliance?
Well, the phrase is starting to become part of an IT manager's vocabulary. And the idea behind it is quite interesting. Virtual appliances are enterprise applications that are pre-built, pre-configured, and ready-to-run. They come complete with an operating system within a virtual machine. Virtual appliances have the potential to greatly reduce the time needed to deploy and manage software.
Additionally, vendors can make their applications more secure than traditional software. This is accomplished by virtue of "Juice" [JeOS], which stands for "just enough OS." Using the JeOS approach, a virtual appliance vendor can select a stripped-down version of an operating system that only includes the programs and components required to run the specific application. This presents fewer targets and exposure points to hackers and malicious software than a full-blown operating system.
Adoption of virtual appliances is steadily on the rise. Many vendors are using virtual appliances to push out evaluation copies of their offerings. An interested company can simply download the virtual appliance and easily run it on a server. If the end-user company does not have a virtualization infrastructure in place, the company can simply download a free VMware Player, which will allow the virtual appliance to be evaluated.
Some IT software and hardware vendors are now going beyond using virtual appliances just for evaluations and are offering full-blown versions of their applications in that format.
One place to find many virtual appliance applications is the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace, which is a repository of virtual appliances. Roughly 600 appliances are available there.
What do you think about virtual appliances? Are you currently evaluating software that comes as a virtual appliance? Drop me a note at s.salamone@att.net and share your experiences about using virtual appliances.
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Desktop Virtualization Begins to Emerge
By Salvatore Salamone
Many companies have turned to virtualization technologies in their data centers to simplify administration and reduce operating costs. After seeing the benefits from virtualization, companies are now looking to apply the same technology to their desktop computers. This is the concept behind what is called the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
The idea is to run desktop applications on virtual machines that reside on servers in the data center. Users access the applications from a desktop PC or thin client using a remote display protocol.
VDI gives workers the full functions of their applications. And because the virtual machines are in the data center, they are a centrally managed resource. This means any changes such as installing a new application, upgrading an existing application, or applying a patch can be made without having to change anything on a user's PC. At the same time, since the data associated with these applications is stored in the data center, it is easier to back up and protect.
Besides making it easier to deploy and maintain applications, VDI also simplifies the resolution of problems. In particular, IT staff can work on problems in the data center without having to visit the desktop.
In a typical implementation, desktops are hosted on VMware Infrastructure running on data center servers. A complete solution requires the use of a number of third-party products. To make the task of assembling a complete solution easier for its partners and customers, VMware has teamed with technology vendors and service provides and created the VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance.
The alliance includes hardware vendors Sun, HP, IBM, Wyse, and ClearCube. The group also includes a variety of management, security, and remote access companies such as Citrix, Check Point, LANDesk, Novell, and Platform Computing.
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LIFE SCIENCE JOBS
Assistant Manager, Research Programmer
Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc
Looking for individual to develop chemical/biological databases and front-end search tools. Individual will also support Research intranet. For more information go to http://www.elan.com/careers/jobSearch/ keywords: research programmer
To have your job openings featured here, contact Lynn Cloonan for more information.
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FEATURED EVENTS
5th Collaborative Communications Summit (CCS)
The CSS HIT: Collaborative Communications Summit: "Transforming Health Care through Health Information Technology" is designed to help top-level executives, legislators, physicians,regulators and technologists come to grips with the swirling forces of technology change, policy development and changing business models. Join industry CEOs, CMOs,CIOs, CMIOs, SVPs, and other healthcare leaders collaborating on the critical issues surrounding HIT. http://www.collaborativecommunicationssummit.com
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To have your event featured here, contact Lynn Cloonan for more information.
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| COMMENTARY |
Needed: Virtualization-Specific Management Tools
By Salvatore Salamone
Virtualization is the next big thing in IT. But like most major disruptive technologies, the field still needs time to mature. Market pioneers often don't stick around. Just consider how many past technology breakthroughs have had one company out in front playing the evangelist role, only for them to be rudely pushed aside when a Microsoft or Cisco gets into the game.
For this market, VMware, an EMC company, has taken the lead. Today, its name is synonymous with virtualization, and its highly successful IPO last August saw the company's stock sell for about 75 percent more per share than had originally been expected. It has a strong foothold on the market now. But there are and will be challengers. There are already a number of open source virtualization solutions available. In August, Citrix announced it would acquire virtualization infrastructure developer XenSource. And Microsoft plans to include its virtualization technology (code named Viridian) in Microsoft Windows Server 2008.
Clearly early VMware adopters are finding they can reap significant benefits by consolidating servers. But, many companies are still hesitant to run mission-critical applications using virtualization.
One reason is the lack of virtualization-specific management tools. IT managers need as much insight into their virtualized applications as they have had with traditional applications. Needed are tools for performance monitoring, capacity planning, monitoring, and enforcement of service level agreements. While there have been a handful of offerings in these areas for several years, this tool market is just now beginning to take off. Tools of this type will be essential for virtualization to become a truly paradigm-shifting technology.
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| FEATURED CONTENT |
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To have your white paper featured here, contact Lynn Cloonan for more information. |
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| Contact the Editor |
We invite your comments and feedback for this edition of Inside IT.
Salvatore Salamone is Bio-IT World's senior contributing editor for information technology. He has over 16 years' experience writing about networking technology and is the author of three books, including The Complete Guide to VPNs (published by InternetWeek, 1999), LAN Times Guide to Managing Remote Connectivity (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1997), and Reducing the Cost of LAN Ownership (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995, co-written with Greg Gianforte).
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