0

C"1

LL1

CO O

CC)

CID

VIRTUALISATION FEATURE

FuturegazingAninflexionpointhasbeenreachednowthatthenumber of virtualserversbeingshipped is outstripping thenumber of physicalmachines

, saysTonyDennis . Heexaminestheimplications forfinancial institutionsasvirtualisationbecomesstandard

operatingprocedure ,

andasks if it meansthetraditionalperceivedproblems ,

suchasknowledgeablestaffshortages ,

and a lack of vendorsupportandsecurityarenow a

thing of thepast?As it becomescommoditised pricesmayalsofall

Fora number of yearsnow

,

servervirtualisationhasbeen a keyelement in manybanksand

insurance companies'strategies to getmoreefficiencyout of theirdatacentresand IT infrastructures . IndependentresearchcarriedoutbyKRClastyearonbehalf

of Microsoft,

for itsVirtualisationin BankingSurvey ,

showed thatthemajority (

58percent)

of largetier-onebankssurveyed in theUSandUK

,

have

already implementedvirtualisationacross

multipleaspects of their IT infrastructures.

Nevertheless,

there isa pressingneed to

ensure a comprehensive managementconsolefortypicallycomplexvirtualisedenvironments

,

andpeoplearestilllearninghow to getthebestout

of it andensure a

totallysecureenvironment . Yettheuptaketrend towardsvirtualisationcontinuesbecausethetraditionalproblemsarerecedingasthetechnologybecomesmorecommonandbestpractice is slowlyestablished

, plusanyway thebenefits faroutweigh anypossibleimplementationissues . Thequestion now is what is thebest

way to introduce it?A studyfromIDCResearch entitled

WesternEuropeServerVirtualisationForecast

& Analysis2007-2013,

showsitspopularitybyillustratingthatforthefirsttimeeverlastyear ,

thenumber of virtualmachine

(

VM) shipmentsexceeded thenumber of

physicalserverssentout; toppingtwo

millionunits . IDCalsosaidthatthedrop in

hardwarespendingcausedbytherecessionhasled to a breakpoint in 2009

withVMshipmentsexpected to bemorethan10percenthigherthanphysicalservershipments ,

It predictsthatby2013,

theratiobetweenvirtualandphysicalservershipmentswillbe

3

:2.

"

Alongside thewell-known andwell

publicised benefits,virtualisationpresents

potential implementation challenges toIT

administrators thatneedto bemastered

,

"

saysGiorgioNebuloni,

a research analystwithIDCEuropeanSystems .

"

Beingsoquickandrelativelystraightforward ,

thedeployment of virtualmachinescangeneratesprawlingenvironments

,

whereIT managerslosevisibility of theamount

of VMsandontheiractualutilisation. "

ManagementEffectivemanagement is thekey to remain

in controlof yourdatacentre.

" Virtualisationhasdeliveredgenerousbenefits to itsusers

,

butcompared to itsphysicalcounterpart ,

it introduces a newdynamic that

ifnotmanagedproperly ,

can

openupPandora' s Box,

"

saysStephenBeaver

,

a virtualisation ' evangelist' withsoftwarevendor

, Tripwire .

" Thespeedandscaleforwhichvirtualisation

is

renowned is generating a newlevel of

complexity and impacting configurationmanagement morethanever . Theabilityto takethingsdownandputthembackupandmovethemaroundmakesforanextremelydynamicenvironment.Knowingtherelationshipbetweenthevariouscomponents in an

IT infrastructureis nowparamount though ,

" headds."

Provisioning , dependencymapping ,

patchingandauditingareallrequired in

thisnewvirtualworld. "

Thecatch is thatmanagementinfrastructure forvirtualisation just isn' t asmatureasthat in thephysicalworld . Asanexample ,

Beavercites a financial firmwithseveralVMson a singlepiece of

hardwarethatwereinterfacing toa

storagesystem . Alertsfromthestorageequipment thatthedevicewasabout to failwerebeingstored

in a log ,

butthe

administratordidn't knowthelog

existed . Hence theentireinfrastructurefailedafter30days . Thesolution

,

Beaverbelieves

,

is that IT professionals shouldselectmanagementtoolsthatcanaggregate informationandconsolidate

management tasks . Thiswillenableprofessional staff to makebothautomatedandintelligentdecisions.

Standards, examples andcompetition

Financial institutions'worriesabout beingtooreliantononesinglesupplier andpayingtoohigh a priceforthetechnologyarenowdiminishing . Thedominant

position of VMware,

which historicallyhas

beenthechiefinnovatorandthebiggestvendor

,

is nowwaningasothervendors,

suchasIBM,

MicrosoftwithHyper-VandCitrix

/Xen

, increasingly targetthemarket." Forsometimenowclientshavelooked

to virtualisation to deliverimprovedcost

performance via increasedvirtualisationandbetteruse of existingassets

,

"

saysGraham Murray ,

a businessexecutivewithIBMFinancialServices .

" Innovative clientshavemovedfurthertowardsplatformvirtualisation though ,

to move beyond thebasicbenefits to a V +

1 environment in

whichplatformoptimisation is nowthekeyconsideration . Thisallowsclients to

movetowards themostcosteffectiveplatform , typicallyonLinux . IndeedvirtualisationwithLinuxonSeries z

servershastakenoffasclients,

suchasBank of NewZealandandAllianzAustralia

,

havesuccessfully migratednoncoreappsonto theirSeries z platform.

"

Onecompanythathasn' t specifiedtheusualvendorsuspectsthough is BlueCrest

CapitalManagement . Thecompany' s IT

teamreviewed a number of servervirtualisationproductsandmanagement

N° and issue date : 1505 - 01/09/2009Circulation : 12775Frequency : BimonthlyFinancialSector_1505_30_315.pdfWeb Site: http://www.fstech.co.uk

Page : 30Size : 85 %1052 cm2

Copyright (Financial Sector Technology - FST)No reproduction without authorisation

1 / 2

toolsbefore installingthetechnology ,

including thosefromVMwareandCitrix.However

,

it eventuallydecided to adoptParallels'VirtuozzoContainersinstead .

AsAndrewRoberts

,

co-head of ITat

BlueCrest, explains :

" What it essentiallycamedown to wascost

, performance and

manageability .Theothersolutionswould

nodoubthelpuswithserverconsolidation

butwhenwelooked at theadditionalnumbersaroundmanagement ,

wejustweren' t confidentabouttheTotalCost of

Ownership (

TCO).

BlueCrestidentifiedvirtualisationasa

costeffective approach to consolidatingexistingHPProliantservers . Thisenabled

itto freeupspaceforinstallingnew

hardware . Thetechnologyalsoneeded to

bothseamlesslyintegratewiththeexistingIT infrastructureandbeeasy to operatebyBlueCrest' s team of administratorswhohave a broadrange of skillsandresponsibilities . Mostnotably ,

it isnow

beingusedregularlyforUserAcceptance

Testing (

UAT)

of itsmarketaggregation

applications ,

disasterrecovery ,

aswellas

hosting thestandardbackofficeapps.There' s

a perceivedlack ofstandards

withthetechnology butvendors likeCitrixareattempting to tackle this . SotirisKousouris

,

a senior IT manager at

Piraeus

Bank,

who'veworkedwiththevendor,

revealsthat :

" WehaveusedCitrixXenAppforsixyears to virtualiseourapplications.

ImplementingXenServerforourservervirtualisationneedscompletesthefinalpiece of thepuzzleforus. "

According to

KousourisCitrix' s commitment to opensourcetechnology and a standardised

approach , mainlyviaitsXen.orgopencommunity ,

is encouraging.

Security , managementanddatarecovery

Securityandtheability of existing ITstaff

to copewithvirtualisationarethetworemaining ' traditional '

problem areaswithvirtualisation still to beexamined.Virtualisationenvironments sharemany of

thesamesecuritychallengesfacedbyphysicalserverenvironments thoughso

ensuring a safeplatformshouldn' t betoodifficult

, arguesSimonYoung , generalmanagerforserversecurity ,

at TrendMicro .

"

Onechallenge is theinability of

appliance-basedsecurity to dealwithattacksbetweenvirtualmachines

(

VMs)

onthesameserver, highlightingtheneed

formechanisms to bedeployeddirectlyon

theserver to protecttheseenvironments,

"

headmits,

butgenerally it shouldbefairlystraightforward , stressing theprovisothat :

"Arequirementhasemergedforanapproach to virtualisationsecuritythatallowsprotection to occurascloseaspossible to theassetitself. "

MartinNiemer, groupmanager ,

EMEA,

VMware, agreesthatvirtualisation

hasthesamesecuritychallengesasphysical .

"

It doesn't addsecurityconcerns

,

nordoes it improvesecurity ,

" hestates." Therearenorealnewchallenges ,

ratherthesameoldproblems." Niemer

points to thefactthatVMwarehasachieved CommonCriteriaEvaluationAssuranceLevel 4 asproof of

hiscompany' s commitment to security .

"

I

thinkthatachievingthat[

Level 4

]

is

extremelyimpressive."

Niemer' s approach to managing thevirtualenvironment is similarlyconfident." We' re dealingwiththesame IT personnelsothere' s

a requirement to givethemthesametools . Theabilityformanagementtools to

workwithinheterogeneousenvironments

,

suchasVMwareandCitrix,

andalsopatchintoIBMTivloiandHPOpenView

,

is crucial .Otherwise new

virtualisation management toolswillsimply increasecomplexityandexpense ,

which is counter-productive."

Thisapproachcontrastswithadvice

givenbyForresterConsulting inresearch

commissioned byTripwireentitledRemovingBarriersToBetterServerVirtualisationEfficiency .Thestudysaysthat

it canbeimpractical to trainalladministratorsonservervirtualisation in

larger IT shops ,

therearesimplytoomany

people . Evenso, largenumbers of

administrators arebeingtrainedbutForresterbelieves thatmore

virtualisationaware managementtoolsandprocessesarenecessary before firmscanfullyvirtualisetheirproductionserversandreach thelowestpossiblecostperVM.

ErnestoLobo,

a recoveryengineerwithKrollOntrack

, sayshe' s spotted a ten-fold

increase in thenumber ofdatarecovery

requests in virtualenvironmentsoverthelasttwelvemonths . This is

as a result of

boththewidespread adoption of virtual

technologyacrossalltypes ofbusiness

[

not

justthefinancialsector]

,

aswellastheuniquedatamanagementchallengesposedbyvirtualenvironments

,

hesays." We' re seeing firmsusevirtualisation to

storedatafrommultipleserverson a

VIRTUALISATIONFEATURE

singlestoragedevice, effectivelyplacing

alltheireggs in

onebasket . Thevolume of

data at riskfrom a singlefailure is

thereforemuchgreater , makingdataloss

potentiallymorecatastrophic in a virtualenvironment . In

somecasesphysicalserversarestillthesuitableoptionand

physicalandvirtualconsolidationshould

bedonesensibly." headds .

" Thedataitself

isnotanymorevulnerable in virtual

environments,

sofirmsshouldn' t bedissuaded fromusingthetechnology [ justuse it appropriately ].

"

Thebigquestion is whathappensnext?

Whatfutureuseswill a fullyvirtualiseddatacentreheputto?According to Stevan

Vidich,

a technologistwithMicrosoftFinancial Services :

" Asvirtualmachines

become trulyportableentities,

andmore

organisations look to outsourcing ,

wewillseenewchallengesaroundsecurity ,

data

protectionandcompliance . It willbeeasyto dropyourcustomer-facing applicationvirtualservers into a Cloud

,

federated or

otherwise,

butensuringcontrolwillbeanother matter. "

Casestudy :

RoyalLondonAssetManagementRLAMhasembarkedon a

virtualisation

projectusingVMwareESXsoftware

workingwithKelway ,

a specialist IT

reseller . Theobjective is to reducethetotalnumber of physicalserversdownfrom35

to eight . Thisis expected to delivercost

savings of £75 ,000overfiveyears from

powerreduction,

with a ReturnonInvestment

(

ROI)

withinthreeyears."

ByworkingwithKelway to virtualise

ourservers,

wewillproduceanenvironment that is fullyflexibleandfuture-proofed ,

"

arguesDennisLeeks,

IT

managerwithRLAM .

" We intend to

reducethenumber of physicalserversbyalmost threequarters ,

whichwillprovideuswithroom to growandsupport futurebusinessdevelopments.

"

Thebusinesshas180endusersplustwoserverrooms . However

,

thesitehaslimitedspaceandwouldeventuallyhave

runout of capacity foradditional servers.

Previously , procuring anewservertook

fourto sixweeks,

butnow anewserver

canbeupandrunning in anhour." Theflexibility of procuring a new

server in anhourmeanswecanbemuch

moreagileasa depaiintentandsupporttherest of thebusiness in a moreresponsiveway ,

" heconcludes. FsFl

00

00

CO

CO

O

CO

7.

CO

-0

N° and issue date : 1505 - 01/09/2009Circulation : 12775Frequency : BimonthlyFinancialSector_1505_30_315.pdfWeb Site: http://www.fstech.co.uk

Page : 31Size : 85 %1052 cm2

Copyright (Financial Sector Technology - FST)No reproduction without authorisation

2 / 2