Maximising VM Density

Maximising Virtual Machine Density is one of the few topics that is of interest to both engineers and business managers alike. With recent announcements from VMware, even Procurement and Finance Directors have reason to show an interest in this subject.

Being able to run a very large number of Virtual Machines on a very small number of physical hardware platforms (servers, switches, storage, racks) requires a high degree of technical skill and great operational discipline. Not every IT team has both in the the right measures.

For business managers, VM density may be directly linked to profitability (hosting, cloud, or something-as-a-service providers). For other kinds of company, VM density may be just another marginal competitive advantage among many, rather than an outright ace.

One thing we can be sure of, for companies using our favorite metric (IT Head Count to Free Cash Flow), increasing VM density can be a primary ratchet for achieving operational efficiency. It is the essence of "doing more with less", and can link IT performance to business outcomes.

360is consultants regularly work with our clients to maximise their VM density, either as part of a performance tuning exercise or a new-build data center project. We were recently invited to present on the subject of maximising VM density at the Citrix XenServer UK User Group's regular meeting in Cambridge. We covered:

• Hardware Selection, down to the component level
• Hypervisor Configuration (we limited things to XenServer)
• Performance Monitoring
• Operational Practices

Delegates from some of the UK's largest companies were present, along with a mixture of hosting service providers, government, and educational establishments. We were pleased to see a few familiar faces from our own client list.

For those of you who could not make the event, you may obtain the slides in PDF form here. If you had not previously registered for the event then you will have to enter your Email address in order to access them.

If you would like to speak to one of our consultants about increasing VM density in your data center, or you would like to register for the next event, then please get in touch.


--- Update 25-07-2011 18:20:21
The application shown on the slides displaying performance and capacity planning information is the Virtual Estate Manager, which is part of VMC's high density virtualisation appliances.

Web Conference, Virtualization Hardware

We are holding a 15 minute webinar on choosing dedicated virtualization hardware. Some of you will have already received the invite directing you to register.

Click on the date below to register for a place and receive the calendar appointment and PDF agenda via Email. Nearer the date and time you will also receive a brief Email reminder.

Save the date: 10am, Friday 19th March 2010, to be held online.

Agenda

"How Virtualization Demands Are Changing Hardware Choices, The Emergence Of A Virtualization Appliance"

Registered attendees will receive further information on the event and a full agenda. A recording of the material will be available for a period after the initial broadcast.

Updated 19-03-10 10am

A recording of the webinar (40MB) is now available. If you cannot read PowerPoint (.pps) files then please contact us for an alternative format.

360is Awarded Platinum Partner Status by The Virtual Machine Company

360is are delighted to be the first UK reseller awarded Platinum status in recognition of their achievements as the partner with the highest unit shipments in 1H 2009.

360is continue to see strong growth in the hardware virtual appliance market, fueled by tightening operating expenditure, increased hosting/colo costs, and growing adoption of virtualization in business critical infrastructure. Since their launch in early 2008, Virtual Machine Company appliances have provided superior VMs-per-watt and VMs-per-square-foot to enterprises, hosting providers, and compute-intensive industries, when compared to general purpose x86 servers.

In a recent press release, Steve Barnett, Virtual Machine's Managing Director said "The 360is team consistently over-deliver, their mixture of expertise, execution and customer service means we're proud to have them as a platinum partner".

About The Virtual Machine Company
The Virtual Machine Company manufacture the worlds most powerful & energy efficient virtualization appliances, offering the densest VM ratios of any comparable platform. Led by Steve Barnett, the former Managing Director of Check Point Software Technologies. Their appliances are designed from the ground up to provide ultimate performance and return on investment in a virtualized environment, and each is backed up by enterprise quality support and services. Each device benefits from performance monitoring, capacity management & planning tools that ensure the optimum configuration of your virtual estate, and access to free In-Cloud services that take estate management to a new level.