3 Leaf Systems - Virtualization Technologies for Enterprise Data Managers

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What is Virtualization?

Virtualization refers to the abstraction of the physical characteristics of computer resources, essentially ‘hiding’ those characteristics from the user. By implementing virtualization, a single physical device can appear as multiple logical devices, or in contrast, multiple physical devices can appear as a single logical device.

An example of making a single physical device appear as multiple logical devices would be to virtualize the compute resources in such a way that a single compute node is used to run multiple guest operating systems, so that the individual users experience multiple logical interfaces to the different operating systems, even though there is a single physical computing resource.

An example of making multiple physical devices appear as a singe logical device would be to virtualize the I/O resources such that the bandwidth of multiple physical networking resources is aggregated into a single logical resource, and assign the virtualized interface to a compute node. From the compute node’s perspective, there is a single resource that is providing the aggregated bandwidth, although it is being provided by multiple physical resources.

The examples above illustrate how server virtualization can be used to increase the efficiency of both the compute nodes and the I/O resources. By packing multiple server environments on fewer, more powerful physical servers, and by consolidating and encapsulating the I/O for the servers, IT departments embracing virtualization achieve significantly improved utilization levels as well as consolidation of the number of platforms requiring technical support.

Prior to the advent of virtualization, which now represents a key component of IT consolidation and on-demand service delivery strategies, physical servers were generally provisioned as static resources for single applications and operating environments. Avoidance of the conflicts that arise with multiple applications led to data center over-provisioning as well as deployment of an excessive range of hardware and software platforms.

Using virtualization techniques, enterprise data centers have resolved the problems of over-provisioning and excessive hardware and software platforms. The 3Leaf Systems’ V-8000 aggregates network and storage resources, enabling dynamic allocation of I/O bandwidth when and where it is needed to further enhance virtualization utility and manageability.