Virtualisation is gaining pace in the PC server market in the face of tightening IT budgets, as companies try to curb IT acquisition and licensing costs, says Herman van Heerden, a virtualisation specialist and MD of Starship Systems.
This is in response to growing global pressure on everyone to find more energy-efficient ways of working.
Starship Systems is a local technology company specialising in the provision, implementation, maintenance and support of virtualisation technologies. “All great inventions and adoption of cutting-edge innovation is born out of necessity, and SA is not lagging too far behind other countries when it comes to virtualisation,” says Van Heerden.
Virtualisation is a method of running multiple independent virtual systems on a single physical resource, but it should not be confused with consolidation, Van Heerdon notes. Also termed 'operating system virtualisation', this is the segmentation of a single operating system, allowing business tools to run separately on that operating system without interference.
“A number of companies promote themselves as virtualisation technology companies, but then only focus on the consolidation of the products in the operating system environment. That's why there's often confusion between consolidation and virtualisation. In a sense, this is a 'virtual' way to think of your business tools but it is not true virtualisation,” he says.
“It's important for companies to know the difference.”
Van Heerden explains that consolidation allows users to run a large number of business tools in a single operating system environment such as Windows, Solaris or any one of the hundreds of Linux distributions available. True virtualisation is when software allows users to segment their hardware. True virtualisation segments not just the operating system, but software - allowing users to install different operating systems with their individual business tools separately on virtual servers, which run from a single physical resource.”
He cautions companies to be aware of marketing speak. Because virtualisation is relatively new and unchartered territory for most South African companies, it is easy to get blind-sided by companies trying to sell things under a guise.
“Ultimately, virtual machine technology should deliver and work as advertised, and the only way to guarantee that the technology will deliver on the vendors' promises is to do a proper proof of concept,” he stresses.
Companies should evaluate virtualisation technologies based on their merits and choose a solution that fits their individual business requirements, has all the necessary support and is, above all else, reliable, he concludes.
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