Virtualization:   A Deep-Rooted Trend

by Arminda Jurgenson
Marketing Communications Specialist
Datatrend Technologies

“The act of integrating one or more (back end) services or functions with additional (front end) functionality for the purpose of providing useful abstractions. Typically virtualization hides some of the back-end complexity, or adds or integrates new functionality with existing back end services. Examples of virtualization are the aggregation of multiple instances of a service into one virtualized service, or to add security to an otherwise insecure service. Virtualization can be nested or applied to multiple layers of a system.”
-- Storage Networking Industry Association

Virtualization, as defined by the Storage Networking Industry Association, leaves room for wonder and opinion.  A broad idea with a wide-range of methods, virtualization of storage area networks and servers hit the IT world by storm.  Yet, still questions abound of where it came from, what it means today, and where it will go tomorrow.

Roots of Virtualization
Though virtualization has become the new thrill of the technology community, the roots of the concept draw from advancements made decades ago.  As its first debut in the form of virtual memory, the University of Manchester introduced Ferranti’s ATLAS, considered to be the most powerful computer of its time in 1962.  For the first time, ATLAS demonstrated the basic concept of using space on the hard drive to store the memory needed for the software.  Though the idea of virtual memory may be considered elementary for today’s technological genius, it took the first step to virtualizing the nation and the world.

By 1970, IBM launched the IBM System/370, using the virtual memory technology.  With a lofty selling price of between $690,000 and $860,000, it used monolithic integrated circuits and monolithic buffer storage with “main core memories having capacities up to 2-million bytes.”  Able to handle 15 program tasks at one time, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., IBM Chairman of the Board, claimed this machine to “stand out as the landmark for the 1970s.”

As virtual memory evolved into a technological standard, simultaneously other concepts occurred to eventually meld and stimulate the ideas of today.  RAID array technology in the 1970s replaced physical with conceptual, by allowing a representational volume name or letter to replace the physical disk drive.

Although the concept of virtualization developed through decades of invention, dedication, forward-thinking, and, in the end, experimentation, these two technologies establish the deep-rooted path of virtualization technology.  Today’s buzzword lies not in a new model but in a new application of the model.  Never before has virtualization spanned across industry lines to impact how we maintain servers and storage.

Answer versus Solution
Some vendors choose to see virtualization on only one level—say application host-based software or perhaps a virtual server outside of the data path.  However, to virtualize each company’s storage remains as individualized as that company’s storage architecture.  Virtualization may leave a bad taste for some industry experts because they view one answer as being the only solution.  In his article “Nice, Neat Storage: The Reality,” John William Toigo states “[Storage Virtualization] is simply an enabling technology—one that other applications can leverage to reduce costs and create other operational efficiencies, if and when the industry can decide on a common method to deliver them.”  Toigo displays an interesting viewpoint followed by a dangerous assumption.   He encourages one cookie-cutter answer to apply to a multi-faceted concept.

Individual environments require individual solutions.  Toigo makes a great point in that virtualization enables, yet he continues in the article to evaluate virtualization as an answer sold in a box rather than a solution devised for the individual setting.  The novelty of this technology makes this in need of a solution-based answer.  The virtualization solution must derive from an evaluation of what the environment currently needs and utilizes, as well as where the future needs lie.  Choke points and inflated response times arise from an inefficient answer to a problem not clearly understood.  They arise from the industry seeing virtualization simply as a product bought and installed.  Testing the solution prior to the launch is a requirement.  As with all technology, be it migration or IT consolidation, testing the solution limits risk and unforeseen problems.  Virtualization follows suit as a major technological advancement for the system environment.  To ensure that the virtualization solution integrates with your management tools, assess the situation thoroughly.

The industry may eventually find this “common method” to fit all architectures, but, even at that time, we should have our virtualization cure based on our own storage and/or server needs rather than on what the industry says our needs are.

Here to Stay
Virtualization seems like merely a technological concept, but its impact will become a reality.  Virtuality definitely allows flexibility.  Virtuality definitely impacts availability.  Virtuality definitely increases utilization.  Virtuality definitely lowers total cost of ownership.  It dynamically allocates or distributes adequate resources as needed.  It also allows the flexibility of your processes to be run on less machines, or smaller machines. 

Although claims on productivity and ROI cannot yet be validated due to the lack of long-term research, these four reasons show that virtuality is here to stay.  To be more flexible, to have more availability, to increase utilization, and to lower total cost of ownership, the technology will only become better.  These benefits make it valuable to improve upon the technology, meanwhile guaranteeing that the concept will not be thrown out.

This technology becomes less complex with every passing day and becomes more of a mainstream reality.  Like the creation of ATLAS, “virtual” was a concept.  Even after its deployment in 1962, it took years to stand as an industry norm, but it did become a norm.  RAID arrays became a norm.  Virtualization will become a norm.

Datatrend's TrendSetter eNewsletter
October 15, 2003