1-2-1
CARLOS ESCAPA GURDIP KALLEY
datacentres so we can throw all our creativity into innovating for the hundreds of thousands of customers that are adopting virtualisation and cloud computing.
SNS: How do end users come to grips with managing physical and virtual BC/DR issues right now?
CE: In two ways. One is to take the legacy tools and keep them within the VMs are they are virtualised. This is not efficient but is compatible with existing procedures and the skills of the operations staff. As the percentage of the virtualised infrastructure increases, customers start projects to improve their BC/DR processes and make them more efficient. That’s when we come in.
SNS: What attracted S3 to the Virtual Sharp product suite?
GK: S3 is always looking to bring innovative and break through technologies to market. Our customers demand we keep ahead of the mainstream. Server Virtualization has given birth to a whole string of specialized DR and BC solutions of which we believe VirtualSharp are uniquely placed to lead the market in automated DR testing.
VirtualSharp has a strong and enviable customer base in Spain which serves as a great foundation for expansion.
SNS: How big a pain point is the management of BC/DR in the virtual environment right now?
GK: It is a significant pain point because virtual environments are inherently more dynamic and harder to manage.
For instance, VMs can be moved around within a cluster, or its storage can be moved across LUNs.
Legacy BC/DR processes were designed for a world where workloads did not get moved around.
Hence we sometimes see customers actually preventing the use of advanced virtualisation functionality (such as Distributed Resource Scheduling) precisely because legacy processes are unable to handle it.
SNS: Do end users understand how to manage both their physical and virtual worlds for optimum efficiency?
GK: Virtualisation represents a sea change for datacentres and it would be fair to say that the industry as a whole is learning how to increase efficiency.
The next step, cloud computing, is in its infancy and we are set for a decade of deep transformation of IT processes. S3 and VirtualSharp Software are contributing to the transformation of just one of them - Disaster Recovery Assurance.
SNS: And are your customers experiencing any other issues with the virtual world?
GK: The virtual world is still less than 50% of all
workloads. It is growing very rapidly and therefore there are many other issues that are being addressed, such as automated provisioning/decommissioning, resource accounting, performance management and so on.
SNS: Specifically, are customers virtualising mission-critical applications right now?
GK: There is no doubt about it. When Microsoft declared in September 2008 that they would support their flagship products Exchange and SQL Server in virtual infrastructures, the race was on.
SNS: What other new technology/products can we expect from S3 in the coming months? And will they all be focusing on virtualisation, or are there other issues that need addressing?
GK: S3 will continue to identify new and emerging technologies that bring a unique value and benefit to the datacenter.
Virtualisation is driving product development across both software and hardware vendors.
S3 will look to those technologies that deliver the benefits of virtualisation across the datacenter from the server, through the network and to the storage layer.
The other area which S3 will continue to focus on is high performance computing in particular clustered, scalable file-based storage solutions.
www.s3-solutions.co.uk WWW.SNSEUROPE.COM WIN 2010
31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44