Making
Virtualization
Strategic
While virtualization is delivering
clear benefits to multiple areas
of IT, organizations need to start
thinking about it holistically to
serve business needs.
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2 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
Few technologies have taken the enterprise by storm
like virtualization. The concept of decoupling hardware
from software  first implemented long ago on main-
frames  was reinvented with industry-standard servers.
It has since spread to the network, storage and desktops,
bringing a new level of flexibility and agility to each realm
while providing the foundation for cloud computing.
and storage virtualization can reduce costs and
increase efficiency; what network virtualization is
poised to bring in terms of business agility; and what
benefits all of these technologies deliver to both IT
and the business as a whole.
As we look at the evolution of virtualization, enter-
prises will derive the ultimate promise of what
virtualization can deliver  and is already delivering
to some pioneering companies. That s the intriguing
part of virtualization s progression: its move from
being a tactical element for IT to a strategic element
for the enterprise.
Let s look first at the business benefits from the
various types of virtualization, and then peer into a
Like many infrastructure-related technologies, virtu- promising future.
alization is going through an evolutionary process. In
the early stages IT deployed virtualization to improve
Early Virtualization Benefits
operations. The next phase of maturity is rapidly
approaching. That s when the business can start Virtualization impacts all the key facets of an orga-
taking greater advantage of the technology. nization s infrastructure, from the client devices
the employees use, to the servers and storage they
But the evolutionary process for any technology access, and to the network that connects them all
is rarely smooth. While virtualization brings many together. In the initial stages of virtualization, each of
benefits and opportunities, it also poses challenges. these facets provides key benefits to business users.
Businesses love the ability to provision virtual server
capacity on a self-service basis, but sometimes the SERVER VIRTUALIZATION. Of all the technologies
result  known as virtual sprawl  can be a head- in the virtualization toolbox, server virtualization is
ache for IT. Storage and network virtualization can the most mature. One of the first manifestations of
further reduce costs and increase agility, but IT must server virtualization was the ability to virtualize a
manage the resulting systems holistically. legacy operating system by encapsulating it within a
protective wrapper to run on a newer machine. This
In order to determine how to best benefit from virtu- meant that businesses could continue to use older
alization, it s important to first understand everything applications that were difficult to upgrade, extending
that s percolating: how technologies such as server their lifetime and giving IT time to modernize them.
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3 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
modate mobile devices as well as desktops. It provides
Virtualization is remaking the way IT
the basis for a reliable bring-your-own-device (BYOD)
scenario because users access centrally stored infor-
delivers infrastructure services to the
mation in the data center  databases, enterprise
applications and more  from their various devices.
business, thanks to the technology s
Most kinds of computing devices, even those that do
not necessarily have the local processing power and
ability to increase agility and respond storage to run a full-fledged application, can access
a desktop image that looks exactly as it would if the
software were running on the device itself.
quickly to corporate needs.
The business derives numerous benefits, particularly
from the standpoint of security and maintenance.
Today, server virtualization provides the opportunity Users can t intentionally or inadvertently introduce
to quickly scale capacity. For example, when a busi- malware into the network by plugging in an infected
ness user needs capacity for either a new project USB drive. Lost or stolen devices no longer divulge
or a performance-intensive problem, IT can provide company secrets. When operating systems or
the necessary CPU performance. IT can frequently applications have to be upgraded or patched, IT has
provide self-service provisioning, so that lines of only to apply the changes to the central repository,
businesses can order computing capacity in an rather than on every single machine. This translates
automated fashion, with minimal IT involvement. The to greater efficiencies for IT as well as increased
alternative: a long, onerous wait of several weeks productivity for users.
while IT procures new physical hardware, installs it,
tests it and makes it available. By that time, the busi- Enabling mobile initiatives such as BYOD also brings
ness may have lost an advantage. the benefit of a satisfied workforce. In a competitive
market, your employees and their skills are critical
Because IT can launch and shift new workloads onto factors in the success of your business. Providing this
any new server, virtualization also becomes a key flexibility can go a long way to retaining staff.
component in a disaster recovery strategy. If one
server fails, the operation can spawn another VM on STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION. Storage virtualiza-
another server, even in a different facility (this elimi- tion takes the same concept  the decoupling of
nates the need to have an exactly configured replica hardware and software  and applies it to storage.
of current systems  a hot site  for business conti- The value for enterprises is similar to that of server
nuity). Similarly, IT can configure systems to add new virtualization: Just as IT can increase performance
capacity in different facilities for other reasons; for capacity by adding virtual machines, it can increase
example, by shifting work to a facility in one region storage capacity by adding disks. Instead of
to take advantage of lower power-consumption rates managing multiple storage devices, IT only has to
after working hours. manage one, with redundancy and rollover built in.
Server virtualization s ability to spawn new instances This provides crucial performance enhancements for
of an application is what makes cloud computing the business. Because storage arrays handle distrib-
viable. This is especially important for companies uted access, they get a lot of unpredictable work-
that have a seasonal or event-driven need for extra loads. With virtualized storage applications added,
capacity; they can configure their data center for the array can more easily accommodate dynamic
normal traffic and offload traffic spikes onto systems workloads. For IT, further value comes from the
in the cloud. All told, IT and the lines of business derive ability to mix different kinds of disks within a storage
significant financial benefits: lower infrastructure array device. Some storage hypervisors are now
costs, lower energy costs, less environmental impact outfitted with intelligent APIs that understand the key
and faster responsiveness to competitive pressures. differences between application workloads and route
them to the appropriate storage.
CLIENT VIRTUALIZATION/END USER
COMPUTING. This is one of the most exciting areas For instance, applications that need high-perfor-
of virtualization  not necessarily because it s new mance drives can be matched with solid-state drives;
(it s worked with dumb terminals since the mainframe applications that require high availability can be
days)  but because it s been extended to accom- matched with RAID arrays; and applications that have
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4 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
can now more easily make on-premise (private)
and off-premise (public) cloud configurations come
4
together into a hybrid network. That gives the busi-
ness simpler access to networking bandwidth in the
same way that server virtualization offers simpler
access to server performance.
The Virtualization Challenge
It all sounds wonderful  and it is. Virtualization is
remaking the way IT delivers infrastructure services
to the business, thanks to the technology s ability
to increase agility and respond quickly to corporate
See  Examining the Past, Present and Future of Virtualization . needs. When all the facets of virtualization come
together, they create a whole that is greater than the
sum of its parts. But this new phase requires new
ways of thinking.
lower priority can be matched with traditional hard
drives. That way, enterprises get the most value from Within IT, the initial challenge relates to silos. One of
their storage procurement budget without over-provi- the great values that IT has delivered to the business
sioning for the wrong application. All these capabili- over the last few years is the breaking down of siloed
ties bring businesses more flexibility and reliability, information  eliminating or updating applications
as well as the ability to configure a more efficient but so that they could create a more accurate, cross-
less expensive computing infrastructure. company view of data. IT now needs to apply that
same kind of thinking internally.
NETWORK VIRTUALIZATION. Also known as
software-defined networking, network virtualization Too often IT creates its own silos: server administra-
is the most recent development in virtualization. As tors focused solely on servers, storage administrators
with the others, it decouples networking software focused solely on storage, and so on for networking
from the physical hardware. Given the importance and other facets of IT. But the fact is that virtualiza-
of networks and the installed base of intelligent tion is helping to rewrite the rules of how technolo-
routers, switches and gateways, it may present the gies work together  security, cloud computing and
most opportunity for upheaval within the organiza- governance are just a few examples  so that each
tion. It has the potential, after all, to replace complex group can work more closely together. If the promise
networking devices with more common devices that of virtualization is agility, then IT workflow can t be a
simply handle software commands. A more likely bottleneck.
scenario: Networks will contain a combination of both
intelligent devices and software-enabled devices. On the technological side, one of the great values
that server virtualization provides is self-service
The benefits derived from network virtualization provisioning, the ability for users to launch pre-
are also similar to the other facets of virtualization: configured virtual machines in an automated way.
flexibility and agility. It is no trivial task to configure, This benefits both IT and the lines of business,
test and deploy a reliable network, but being able to
do so through a software application rather than by
programming multiple devices would be a significant
Having a liaison (or better yet,
time savings. For IT, network virtualization reduces
administrative costs because it allows centralized
a group) that understands all
management of networking capabilities. It also
reduces resource costs because it is independent of
the ramifications of virtualiza-
the hardware, providing greater interoperability and
networking equipment choice.
tion, both from a technical and
For the business, network virtualization is the key
a business standpoint, can
to more efficient cloud computing. By moving the
intricacies of network hardware into software, IT help create a holistic view.
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5 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
because the latter don t have to contact the former
The Next Phase of Virtualization
in order to requisition server space. The downside:
IT needs to manage the process so that it doesn t So what s the answer to the virtualization challenge?
end up with virtual sprawl  a plethora of VMs Simply put, it s for both IT and the business to apply a
running unchecked and unused, but still soaking up new way of thinking to their virtualization strategies,
resources. one that aggregates them rather than segregates
them. IT must apply that holistic thinking across the
Another technological challenge stems from the enterprise.
fact that, according to industry estimates, the vast
majority of companies use more than one hypervisor With IT deploying so much virtualization, all the
on the x86 platform, whether from VMware, Micro- various systems have to work together. That s why
soft, Red Hat or another open-source solution. Each a virtualization team is so important  to share
of these vendors offers virtualization management knowledge and understanding, and to ensure that
tools  robust ones  but they re only useful for virtualization speeds up the business rather than
managing each one s stack. That forces IT to try and slows it down.
troubleshoot using multiple, incompatible tools.
CIOs need to converge their organizational structures
Multiply this management challenge across multiple to support greater understanding and insight across
kinds of virtualization, and overlay the need to still servers, clients, storage and networking. IT adminis-
manage physical devices, and the result is a manage- trators need to think more about how what they do
ment nightmare. With virtualized storage systems, affects others, and be open to both sharing informa-
you need a way to ensure that data for applications tion and learning (and they must work to ensure they
requiring high-performance drives are stored on use a common vocabulary).
solid-state drives within storage arrays, while data
for less-crucial applications move to traditional Companies are increasingly creating the position of
disk drives; archived data, of course, moves to a virtualization administrator, a liaison between and
tape or other offsite systems. Similarly, virtualized among the other administrators. By creating that role
networking brings its own management challenges: and the team around it, IT staff can develop a greater
making sure virtual network connections can be understanding of how each element s activities and
linked and unlinked as quickly as the business needs needs impact the others.
to have the data routed.
Why is the idea of a virtualization administrator impor-
tant to the business? Because for every advantage
that virtualization delivers to IT, it delivers bigger
advantages to the business. The ability to easily use
SaaS applications, to spin up internal resources, to
support business continuity, to reduce resource costs
 all these derive to the business. Having a liaison (or
better yet, a group) that understands all the ramifica-
tions of virtualization, both from a technical and a
business standpoint, can help create a holistic view.
Some companies are setting up program manage-
ment teams focused solely on virtualization. This
team should start by creating a coherent virtual-
ization management strategy that encompasses
consolidated capacity planning, security manage-
ment and policy-setting activities. There should be
a liaison, too, with the applications group, to ensure
that applications and the business units that use
them are properly served in this new environment.
The alternative is downtime. IT must be able to not
only proactively migrate workloads during scheduled
downtime but also react quickly to changes in the
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6 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
system as they occur. To do that, they must work from understanding earlier rather than later how technolo-
what s known as a single pane of glass  that is, a gies such as virtualization and converged infrastruc-
single, integrated management system that lets them ture impact each other, and how to make them work
drill down into servers, into networks and into storage to each other s benefit.
to ensure that the whole system runs smoothly.
Why is this holistic viewpoint so important? While
A strong virtualization management system can add many companies have increased their return from
to reliability, predictable performance and simplified their virtualization efforts (see sidebar,  How Enter-
management. Even as an enterprise s infrastruc- prises Are Taking Advantage of Virtualization ), there is
ture expands and encompasses more capabilities, still much potential. Most companies have yet to reap
managing it doesn t have to be more complex. the potential of BYOD and hybrid cloud scenarios.
In virtualization s next phase, businesses can expect
The Importance of the Holistic
new levels of agility and responsiveness  from the
Viewpoint
way workloads shift between different parts of the
As a company becomes more proficient in virtualiza- infrastructure, to the way employees access data, no
tion, it s positioned to tackle key business initia- matter where it might be. Virtualization brings new
tives: mobility, big data, cloud and others. With the levels of reliability and flexibility, with subsequent
increasing focus on employing converged infrastruc- boosts to both employee satisfaction and competi-
tures  that is, highly integrated servers, storage tive advantage. In its new evolution, virtualization is
and connectivity capabilities  organizations need to moving from a tactical to a strategic initiative, and
have expertise with an innate understanding of how companies must be prepared to make the most of
all these pieces fit together. It s crucial to focus on its capabilities.
How Enterprises Are Taking Advantage
of Virtualization
Here are eight situations where HP customers are already
reaping the benefits of virtualization for specific business
scenarios.
SCENARIO #1 ACCOMMODATE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH:
One of the prime advantages that virtualization brings
organizations is the ability to scale and accommodate
growth. One e-commerce service provider1 recently
experienced startling growth not only in its international
business but in the number of services it offered. What s
more, it faced the prospect of adding 25 percent more
storage every year to accommodate that growth. Instead,
the service provider deployed a completely virtualized
environment, starting with server and storage virtualiza-
tion and moving soon to network virtualization. When
it became apparent during the deployment of a large
enterprise application that 30 percent more storage was
required, the IT department was able to easily fulfill the
request. Virtualization gave them the ability to offer
provisioning of all facets of the deployment in a short
amount of time.
Continued on next page
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7 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
SCENARIO #5 REDUCE OPERATIONAL COSTS: A digital
content company5 needed to reduce server deployment
time in order to better serve its customer base. By consoli-
dating physical server instances onto virtualized servers,
it reduced the number of physical servers by more than
half, from 900 to 400. In doing so, its deployment time went
from one month to a few hours, and it reduced power costs
by 30 percent. From a business standpoint, it is now able to
introduce new services sooner and minimize downtime.
SCENARIO #6 INCREASE SCALABILITY: A developer of
cloud-based mobile device management solutions6 needed
to be able to scale its business to accommodate up to five
million users. It deployed a virtualized server and storage
infrastructure that allows it to support on-demand delivery
SCENARIO #2 MANAGE MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS:
for its application. Through its virtual services, it provides
Two leading banks2 merged, with a mandate from
each customer a secure environment, while still maximizing
management to reduce the workforce in the call centers.
automation and simplifying manageability to reduce its
The problem: Each bank had its own customer relation-
costs. The system allows rapid provisioning of new clients,
ship management applications, but each bank s customer
while maintaining a comprehensive disaster recovery capa-
service representatives were now in the same location.
bility to safeguard service delivery and business continuity.
The bank used desktop virtualization to give agents
access to both applications until they could be merged.
SCENARIO #7 PROVIDE NEW SERVICES: An online
The result was a seamless transition for both sets of
travel agency7 identified storage optimization as a key to
customers and the customer service agents.
delivering superior performance, enabling business agility,
driving down cost and accommodating the fast deploy-
SCENARIO #3 CONTROL COSTS AND COMPLIANCE:
ment of new services. It deployed a new storage infra-
A community-based not-for-profit health center3 needed
structure that doubled its compute density while shrinking
to modernize its data center to enable rapid deployment of
its infrastructure footprint by 65 percent. The new system
new applications with high reliability and fast performance.
doubled storage utilization by eliminating unused capacity,
Its extensive IT infrastructure supports electronic medical
enabling its development team to use capacity for devel-
records and picture archiving communication systems,
opment environments and boost innovation. Overall, the
both required for modern medical care. To cost-effectively
online agency was able to avoid a massive data center
provide an infrastructure to host these medical applica-
construction project and an increase in IT headcount,
tions, it deployed a virtual desktop infrastructure and a
while still reducing by half the time it took to deliver new
back-end storage solution that is easy to manage and
services to users.
improves application reliability and performance. In doing
so, it was able to eliminate a six-figure cost for maintaining
SCENARIO #8 ENHANCE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:
its storage system and reduce storage downtime. The
A leading IT service provider8 deployed virtual storage capa-
health center was able to preserve its limited capital while
bilities in order to boost storage throughput while moving
still delivering patient information quickly and reliably, and
less frequently used data to more cost-efficient disks on an
complying with government healthcare regulations.
automated basis. In addition to better throughput, which
improved customer satisfaction, the provider was able to
SCENARIO #4 REDUCE DEPLOYMENT TIME FOR
reduce storage administration time by 65 percent, increase
CLIENT DEVICES: A health system4 with 3,000
uptime to 99.995 percent, reap 50 percent cost savings
employees decided to deploy tablets with virtual desktop
versus its previous storage infrastructure and reduce by
technology to reduce hardware purchase and management
50 percent the number of trouble tickets it opened for
costs, while at the same time improving clinician-patient
customers. Because of these efforts, its customer satisfac-
interaction. It calculated that by using virtualization on
tion rating has been 96 percent for several years.
tablets and servers, it was able to deploy the client devices
in days rather than weeks, while increasing information
1
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-9745ENW.pdf
security. It anticipates a 100 percent payback in three years
2
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-8060ENW.pdf
3
from cost reductions in hardware, power and mainte-
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-4788ENW.pdf
4
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-0149ENW.pdf
nance, which also frees up IT resources for other projects.
5
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-2301ENW.pdf
Because users can access the same information no matter
6
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-2672ENW.pdf
7
where they are, the health system anticipates reclaiming
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-9745ENW.pdf
8
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-9745ENW.pdf
62,500 hours of staff time annually for patient care.
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8 MAKING VIRTUALIZATION STRATEGIC
What Hewlett-Packard Brings
to Virtualization
Given the impact that virtualization is having on organiza- Open Network Foundation, a collaboration of tech
tions, and its shift from a tactical capability to a strategic companies whose mission is to improve networking
one, it s crucial to work with a solution provider that through software-defined solutions. In addition, its
understands both its implications and its potential. HP Virtual Connect management tool makes server
meets this requirement in a variety of ways  from its changes transparent to storage and networks, and
experience in server, storage and client virtualization to its allows IT to optimize and control bandwidth using
contribution to network virtualization, as well as its strong fewer physical ports for the same performance, while
foundation in converged infrastructures and consulting reducing server edge infrastructure up to 95 percent
capabilities to help enterprises knit their virtualiza- and costs up to 65 percent.9
tion strategy together. HP s Virtualization Solutions are
n VIRTUALIZATION SERVICES. Whatever services
designed for virtualization from the ground up, delivering
customers need to deploy virtualization, HP can
more memory, superior networking capability, modern
provide. These range from consulting, education,
storage specifically designed to meet virtualized require-
implementation and support services to financial
ments and compute-intensive application workloads.
services for companies that want to lease equipment,
or asset recovery services for reuse or recycle.
Here are some key points to consider regarding HP s
n PARTNER INTEGRATION. HP works closely with
capabilities:
industry leaders in the virtualization segment 
Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat and VMware  on joint
n INTEROPERABILITY. As you would expect from a
engineering and validation programs to ensure seam-
solutions provider of its size, HP strives to ensure that
lessness integration. By giving customers a choice of
its products  from its family of BladeSystem, ProLiant
reference architectures and pre-integrated solutions
and Integrity servers, to its HP Converged Storage
such as the HP Converged Systems portfolio, HP can
products such as the 3PAR StoreServ and StoreVirtual
help speed your virtualization deployment and improve
storage arrays, to its networking systems  interop-
resource efficiency.
erate smoothly. This reduces IT-resource needs but
also improves all the salient customer metrics: time-
The result is that Hewett-Packard has a comprehensive
to-market, time-to-value, uptime and more.
portfolio for virtualization, and cloud management and
provisioning. These solutions enable customers to quickly
n VIRTUALIZATION MANAGEMENT. Because it
add new capabilities and make faster, more informed
innately understands the importance of providing a
business decisions by accelerating deployment and
single, unified view into virtualization systems, HP has
increasing the flexibility of applications. Working with its
developed software to manage all phases of server,
virtualization partners, HP offers a portfolio of products,
storage and networking systems. This helps IT visualize
services and integrated solutions that are engineered to
the virtualized environment so they can easily see and
meet customers end-to-end virtualization requirements.
understand the relationships between host and guest
systems, and the applications running on them. Its
Insight Control software seamlessly integrates with
Most important, though, these solutions work together to
major hypervisors for better management of virtual-
provide a holistic capability on which enterprises can base
ization environments. As an example, HP is the first
their virtualization, cloud and infrastructure strategies
vendor to integrate server, infrastructure networking
going forward. With this holistic perspective, enterprises
and storage management together in the new VMware
can better manage their infrastructure, improve the user
vSphere 5.1 Web UI. The result: simplified management
experience and accelerate their response to competitive
over a wider array of systems.
pressures. And they can confidently and successfully
continue their virtualization journey.
n NETWORK VIRTUALIZATION EXPERTISE. The open-
source OpenFlow protocol for programming routers
and switches, a key part of SDN, was developed by
9
HP internal calculations comparing number of hardware components
Stanford University researchers in conjunction with
of traditional infrastructure versus HP BladeSystem with two Virtual
Hewlett-Packard Labs. HP is also a member of the Connect FlexFabric modules  January 2013