Virtualization Without the Hypervisor Not All Virtualization Solutions Follow a Traditional Hypervisor-Based Architecture
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virtu v l DATA CENTER Volume 13 04 How to Staff Today’s Data Centers Virtualization and tight budgets have changed the way modern data centers are staffed. Find out how to blend skills and technology for the best mix. BY STEPHEN J. BIGELOW 12 Virtualization Without the Hypervisor Not all virtualization solutions follow a traditional hypervisor-based architecture. Learn about the benefits of OS virtualization. BY GREG SHIELDS 16 Evaluating High-End Hardware Virtualization Platforms To get the most from your hypervisor, make sure you compare the features and metrics to find the right fit for your organization. BY DANIELLE RUEST AND NELSON RUEST Wanted: Well Rounded IT Pros EDITOR’S LETTER N TODAY’S troubled economy, sors are not created equal. Understand - 7 organizations expect data center ing the features of competing hypervi - personnel to do more with less. sors as well as the guest operating sys - HOW TO STAFF That reality has IT pros taking tems they support is essential in the TODAY’S DATA advantage of virtualization tech - selection process. The next step is to CENTERS 7 nology to support more business func - compare the metrics of each hypervisor. Itions with fewer staff. IT experts Danielle Ruest and Nelson In addition, those working in data Ruest help you sort out the differences VIRTUALIZATION WITHOUT THE center jobs find that their roles keep among the Big Three hypervisors in HYPERVISOR expanding to include new skill sets. “Evaluating High-End Hardware Virtual - 7 With all these changes taking place, the ization Platforms .” Use their charts and big question is how to find the right mix tables to get a side-by-side comparison EVALUATING of people and technologies for modern of the market leaders. HIGH-END data centers? Not a hypervisor fan? That’s OK, HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION Outsourcing and hosted services are because not all virtualization solutions PLATFORMS some of the ways to reduce dependence follow the traditional hypervisor-based 7 on full-time employees while still getting architecture. the job done. Other strategies include For example, OS virtualization retooling existing staff so that they learn leverages a host operating system and the new technologies needed to pick up residing virtual machines that are com - the slack. In this month’s issue, Stephen pletely segregated from one another. J. Bigelow examines the evolution of IT Learn more about OS virtualization in hiring in “ How to Staff Today’s Data “Virtualization Without the Hypervisor ” Centers .” by Microsoft MVP Greg Shields. Virtualizing workloads has certainly Got some new ideas you’d like to helped organizations make more effec - share? We’d love to hear them. Send tive use of their hardware. But to get the them in an email to ccasatelli@techtar - most from your hypervisor, you should get.com . I make sure that you’ve selected the right one for your needs. Although their features are pretty sim - CHRISTINE CASATELLI ilar, all hardware virtualization hypervi - Editor, Virtual Data Center 2 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 WASTED RESOURCES. COMPLEXITY. TIME-INTENSIVE MANAGEMENT. STOP ROI EROSION Remember why you virtualized in the first place? Cost savings. Resource efficiency. Unfortunately, when left unchecked, virtualization has the opposite effect. Virtual machines are easy to create, to deploy, to move… and to spiral out of control. It’s called VM Sprawl, and it can lead to strapped resources, security risks, and ROI erosion. Hyper9 Virtualization Optimization helps cut virtualization waste and control VM sprawl by providing greater business insight into the VI to reduce complexity, control costs and manage risk. Download a 30-Day Free Trial at www.hyper9.com How to Staff Today’s Data Centers VIRTUALIZATION AND TIGHT BUDGETS HAVE CHANGED THE WAY MODERN DATA CENTERS ARE STAFFED. FIND OUT HOW TO BLEND SKILLS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BEST MIX. BY STEPHEN J. BIGELOW EDITOR’S LETTER 7 HOW TO STAFF TODAY’S DATA CENTERS 7 T ONE TIME, it took a ity, the scope of many IT roles is expand - small army of highly ing, often leveraging advances in virtual - VIRTUALIZATION trained and experi - ization technology to support many WITHOUT THE enced IT profes - more business systems without more HYPERVISOR 7 sionals to run a bodies to operate them. It’s common to corporate data center. But the persistent see an IT staff tasked with backup now advances of technology and shifting taking care of SharePoint portals, while EVALUATING A business perceptions have changed the systems administrators may now man - HIGH-END HARDWARE nature of IT staffing. age storage as well. VIRTUALIZATION No longer viewed as a bastion of eso - The changes are taking place all the PLATFORMS 7 teric technology, IT shops have assumed way up the corporate ladder. “Senior a more traditional role as a cost center— management roles, such as the CIO and an everyday element of business opera - CTO, are evolving at an accelerated rate tions that contends for diminishing with very specific alignment to the busi - budget dollars just as other parts of the ness line managers,” said Allen Zuk, organization do. president and CEO of Sierra Manage - Business changes have also converged ment Consulting LLC, a technology con - with technological advances in manage - sulting firm based in Parsippany, N.J. ment tools, improvements in resiliency This evolution of roles sometimes and the emergence of virtualization. And results in fewer IT positions. The bright all of these factors have had a profound side for experienced IT personnel is that effect on the IT staffing needs and skill they may get to spend extra time on set requirements for modern data centers. strategic projects. “The reality is that once [we] get past the initial setup and hardening, most of TRENDS IN TODAY’S IT WORKFORCE the day-to-day operations are managed Organizations expect today’s IT staffs to by our junior technicians,” said Chris do more with less. Because of that real - Steffen, principal technical architect at 4 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 Kroll Factual Data, a business informa - employees. Only 14% of respondents tion provider in Loveland, Colo. indicated a decline in IT staff. For senior IT personnel, this means a But the median number of open IT shift toward a supervisory or project positions is down substantially, from five management position. It’s a trend that Steffen sees increasing among his peers. “IT managers can’t really afford to get rid of their ‘big picture’ people,” he said. The bright side for “They need to have those people around, experienced IT person - EDITOR’S if nothing else than for compliance rea - nel is that they may get LETTER sons.” 7 Steffen’s anecdotal observations are to spend extra time on reinforced by data from a 2009 survey strategic projects. HOW TO STAFF from the Computing Technology Indus - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS try Association Inc., the nonprofit IT 7 trade association known as CompTIA. Its survey, called “Evaluating the State of VIRTUALIZATION IT Skills,” reports that the number of IT WITHOUT THE employees within 57% of respondents’ open positions in 2008 to only one open HYPERVISOR organizations is staying the same (see position in 2009 . The reduction in open 7 Figure 1 ), while 24% of respondents indi - positions is most likely because of a cated an increase in the number of IT combination of new openings being EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS 7 Figure 1 Although IT staff sizes are not growing as fast as in previous years, most teams are holding the line in size. 60% 50% 57% 40% 30% 20% 24% 10% 14% 0 5% Staying the Increasing Decreasing Don’t know same SOURCE: COMPTIA 5 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 filled—or open requisitions cancelled— SAN architect, some network architects and the tendency for businesses to hold or administrators, support technicians, the line on staffing levels until the econ - application developers and communica - omy shows clear signs of recovery. tion engineers. Although the average number of open As an example, Steffen reports that positions may be dwindling, the open - Kroll Factual Data employs approxi - ings show a significant range of IT mately 95 IT professionals from the CIO responsibilities (see Figure 2 ), from tech - and down—including 12 to 15 in the net - nical support to application developers. work operations group, five or six junior EDITOR’S Roughly one-quarter of respondents had technicians, two or three senior IT staff LETTER no open positions. and about 20 people in technical sup - 7 There is certainly no single formula or port. The remaining staff generally com - rule of thumb for staffing modern data prises application development profes - HOW TO STAFF centers. Staff composition will vary dra - sionals and various managers. TODAY’S DATA CENTERS matically based on the size of the organi - 7 zation, its geographic location, its indus - try or vertical market and the actual THE MAKING OF AN IT PROFESSIONAL VIRTUALIZATION technologies implemented in-house. Those who work in the IT profession WITHOUT THE Still, core staffing typically requires typically have some amount of college- HYPERVISOR some number of data center operators, a level coursework, such as a bachelor of 7 EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE Figure 2 VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS 7 Unfilled IT openings are fewer in number, but a wide range of openings are still available for IT professionals. 25% 20% 24% 15% 19% 16% 10% 14% 14% 13% 5% 0 Technical Field Network Network Programmer/ No Support Technician Engineer Technician Coder/ positions Specialist Developer open SOURCE: COMPTIA 6 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 science degree in computer science, but certifications are not all-encompassing, a two-year associate of science degree or they demonstrate a basic knowledge that strong technical training may also be gives a prospective junior staffer an acceptable.