By VSM News Staff published: Thursday, December 16 2004
SWsoft has announced that Virtuozzo, their server virtualization product, is now available for Windows in addition to Linux. VSM caught up with Kurt Daniel, Director of Marketing, for a short Q&A about the company and Virtuozzo.
VSM: Could you describe briefly what your company does, and why server virtualization technology is important to your business?
KD: SWsoft is the recognized leader in server automation and virtualization software for enterprises and service providers. We currently have more than 200,000 virtual private serves in production, making our solution one of the most stable, secure and reliable products available. Our customers turn to Virtuozzo because it typifies what utility computing stands for - dynamically distributing IT’s resources when and where they are required.
VSM: What made SWsoft move to the enterprise market from the hosting market? And from Linux to include Windows?
KD: Because of our unique architecture and approach towards virtualization, Virtuozzo has always had potential in the enterprise market. Virtuozzo for Linux is a mature product that has been around for years and was proven, first in service provider datacenters and subsequently in the enterprise. We focused on developing a solution for Windows that had exactly the same features and capabilities as the one that has created hundreds of thousands of production VPSs in the hosting market. Moving to Windows and the enterprise market was driven by customer demand and the resulting opportunities for Virtuozzo technology.
VSM: How does the enterprise product compare to VMware ESX and GSX and Microsoft Virtual Server?
KD: There are a number of points of differentiation that our customers and partners have identified. The core difference is our approach.
Virtuozzo differs from other server virtualization vendors in its unique OS virtualization architecture and approach, resulting in near zero overhead, hardware and software savings, and decreased management effort. Combined with advanced security, availability, resource management, tools and support, Virtuozzo represents the optimal solution for a wide range of IT scenarios.
VSM: What is the expected consolidation ratio for physical to virtual servers?
KD: The ratio of consolidated physical to virtual servers varies depending on the specific applications being run on the machine and the resources available. Virtuozzo enables each VPS to scale up to 16 CPUs and 64GB of RAM. Virtuozzo has been tested in IBM Labs to show it can run up to 5,000 Linux instances with less than a percentage point of overhead on a low-cost Intel x86 server. Typically we expect a consolidation ratio within the range of 5:1 to 20:1 or higher. Again, this ratio is limited by applications and not overhead.
VSM: Are there any performance standards for applications running on virtual servers? How about the network capabilities?
KD: A Virtuozzo VPS has all the characteristics and capabilities of a standalone server. Everything from ERP to email to Web applications can be run on a Virtuozzo VPS.
VSM: How complicated is the installation and deployment process?
KD: We offer an easy Web-based installation process for our customers and complete instructions, documentation and tools for doing so with minimal effort. It is a straightforward and uncomplicated process.
VSM: Who are the recommended hardware vendors?
KD: Virtuozzo supports all major hardware vendors including: IBM, Dell, HP and many more. (For a full hardware compatibility list, click here.)
VSM: Does the solution help customers with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery?
KD: Yes, Virtuozzo offers extensive tools including self-administering Web-based recovery, repair and monitoring tools and capabilities. In addition, it helps maintain corporate SLAs and provides migration, updates and upgrades with near-zero downtime.
VSM: What business drivers would cause companies considering virtualizing their servers to look to your product?
KD: We are seeing a number of scenarios that Virtuozzo excels at, such as server consolidation, managing critical application growth, minimizing downtime, departmental specific servers, developing and testing environments and path management.
VSM: Can you give us an example of how virtualization is being used to deliver specific business value?
KD: We have a major Fortune 50 client that is currently using Virtuozzo within their central IT department. This company has seen an immediate impact in server consolidation and overall reduction of licensing costs that has helped them with a challenging mandate of reducing costs by 15 percent each year. They are currently planning to deploy Virtuozzo on many additional servers for development, testing and deployment scenarios. Finally, they have reported significant benefits far beyond cost savings in terms of agility and SLAs.
VSM: Server virtualization is in its infancy. Can you share with us where you might see this technology leading in the future?
KD: Virtualization is broadening and is already a large market. It’s a disruptive technology that makes IT administrators and planners look at the big picture of dynamically and efficiently allocating resources when and where they need them the most. Our approach focuses on efficiency, flexibility and availability.
VSM: How do our readers learn more about your company and products?
KD: To learn more about how Virtuozzo’s approach to virtualizing the OS differs from hardware virtualization approaches, visit www.sw-soft.com/virtuozzo.
