HPC in the Cloud: A Boom Year for Virtualization Management

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December 10, 2007

A Boom Year for Virtualization Management

Virtualization certainly has been a hot topic around these parts lately, and this week is no different. In fact, some might say it’s the only technology that matters, leaving all other enterprise infrastructure models in the dust as it moves from basic server consolidation into the higher-concept world of automation and high availability.

The 451 Group is one organization that might back up that statement, especially after the transformation it has witnessed the virtualization market undergo in the past year. Of these changes, the most staggering has to be the 833-plus-percent year-over-year increase in companies peddling virtualization management solutions, from six last December to 50 presently (according to its recently announced report). And not only is the market expanding, but the subsectors within it are, as well, with The 451 Group noting 10 distinct areas: administration; automation; backup and high availability; capacity planning; infrastructure virtualization; monitoring; optimization; security; test lab automation; and workspace virtualization.

The mention of “capacity planning” actually segues to the next item I wanted to mention -- Luke Flemmer’s article on dynamic provisioning with Amazon EC2 or similar, internal models. According to Flemmer, managing director and co-founder of Lab49, EC2 takes virtualization to the next level and allows companies to easily and quickly ramp up additional resources to meet periodic spikes in capacity. For companies that can’t access the service due to security concerns, Flemmer says they should be implementing schemes of their own that will allow them to maintain a reasonable level of resources and not fall into the old trap of buying way too many boxes just to meet the occasional peak loads. Virtualization will play a big part in such initiatives.

Amazon EC2 also comes into play in Red Hat’s new MRG (Messaging, Real-Time, Grid) distributed computing platform, as EC2 is one of many resource centers across which MRG users can schedule jobs. You’ve probably read about this software already, but if not – or if you just need to refresh your memory – you can get the background here.

There are plenty of noteworthy items elsewhere in this week’s issue, so be sure to check out: “IBM, CARE Use Grid to Advance Microfinance in Africa”; “Platform Computing Announces Symphony 4”; “European Agencies Unite Grid, Finance”; “Sun Releases xVM Ops Center for Datacenter Automation”; “Fujitsu Announces Grid-Based CentricStor”; and “HPC, Grid Leaders Offer Webinar for Insurance Companies.”

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Comments about GRIDtoday are welcomed and encouraged. Write to me, Derrick Harris, at editor@gridtoday.com.

Posted by Derrick Harris - December 10, 2007 @ 10:58 AM, Pacific Standard Time

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Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris is the Editor of On-Demand Enterprise

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