EXCALIBUR TECHNOLOGY VMWARE

Looking for a way to reduce power consumption, hardware purchases, server support costs, server heat exhaust, and rack space requirements?  Look at server virtualization.  Virtualization allows you to install VMWare as the core operating system on one or more physical machines and then install a large number or virtual machines running almost any operating system on those physical machines.  Most of the time your servers are idling unused.  Why not maximize their efficiency?  Today’s servers feature multiple processor cores, multiple thread execution, large amounts of memory, and huge amounts of storage.  They are also much less power hungry.  Let’s look at how a typical mid size organization can reduce costs and increase uptime by switching from a traditional server environment to a hosted one.

Current Inefficient Setup without Redundancy:

• Single Core Xeon Server – Active Directory & Print Server
• Single Core Xeon Server – Exchange Server
• Single Core Xeon Server – SQL Server
• Single Core Xeon Server – Backup Server
• Single Core Xeon Server – Terminal Server
• Single Core Xeon Server – Custom Application

New Efficient VMWare Setup with Redundancy:

• Quad Core Xeon Server – Virtualized
• Quad Core Xeon Server – Virtualized
  
  * All servers virtualized and load balanced between physical servers
• Dual Core Xeon Server – Control Unit
• NAS – All Storage

In this example we were able to replace several old servers that run extremely hot and consume large amounts of electricity with three newer and much more power efficient units.  We have half the physical servers to support, monitor, purchase warranties for, and house in our data rack.

Since the servers are virtualized, they are load balanced between the physical machines.  Should one physical machine go down, the other will take on those virtual servers almost instantly, thereby almost completely eliminating the possibility for downtime.  All storage is centralized and resources such as hard drive space can be changed on the fly.  To grow this new infrastructure, an additional server can be added to the group and the workload will automatically be balanced across all servers.  To add more storage space, add more drives to the NAS.

For additional information about VMWare, virtualization, server consolidation and the cost savings associated with it, please contact your Technology Consultant.

Excalibur Technology is a VM Ware Certified Partner.  We can install and maintain any size configuration.