VMware vSphere – avoiding an Internal Storm (1 of 10)

Traditionally, within the Distributed Computing world single or multiple applications would be hosted on single physical servers, each with an operating system (typically Windows or UNIX/Linux).  Then Virtualization was reborn into the x86 environment (note to my Mainframe friends that we know Virtualization was first born in the zOS environment) that allowed for multiple "virtual systems" to be hosted on a single physical server by using hypervisor software.  As virtualization software developed further, notably by VMware who are currently the market leader in x86 virtualization technology, we are now able to cluster virtual systems together to create shared pools of resources across the virtual infrastructure.

Why is this important? 

Virtualization underpins Cloud Computing by presenting and controlling computing resources to users (or clients) by these shared pools of resources (Resource Pools).  However, it is not just the ability to provide resources and control usage, Virtualization also provides two key components of Cloud Computing:

·         Autonomic Computing

·         Utility Computing

vSphere incorporates Autonomic Computing by automating the control of functioning computer applications and systems.  Using vMotion and DRS, it can automate the migration of virtual machines to alternate ESX hosts within the same cluster, if a specific ESX host becomes unbalanced due to excessive resource demand on that host.

Utility Computing allows Cloud providers to provision computing resources and infrastructure to customers and charge them for their specific usage or chosen configuration at a flat rate.

In this series I’ll be looking at VMware vSphere, how it underpins Cloud Computing and how you can use it to best advantage. I’ll start by examining the definition of Cloud on Wednesday...

Jamie Baker
Principal Consultant