Introduction
Virtualization has become mainstream. More than 90 percent of midsize and large businesses have implemented virtualization at some level, according to research conducted by CDW in 2010. However, while many organizations have implemented virtualization, there is still tremendous room for growth. In the CDW survey, respondents said roughly a third of their total server infrastructure consisted of virtualized servers. Virtualization deployment will continue to grow dramatically, fueled by a variety of factors, including continued use of virtualization to support consolidation efforts; growth of virtualization use in mission-critical applications and workloads; growth in virtualization among small and midsize organizations; successful deployment of virtualization as a strategic initiative to enhance business agility; and virtualization as the foundation for next-generation cloud computing services. IDC has predicted that the compound rate of growth in servers for virtualization will be more than double the growth of the overall server market through 2014.

Virtualization is not only here to stay, but it will continue to be one of the most critical initiatives for IT organizations in businesses of all sizes. As IT decision-makers go through the process of determining how virtualization can be deployed more thoroughly and strategically within their organizations, these are some of the key points they will need to address:

1. What are your ultimate goals with virtualization? Are you content with some of the traditional benefits of virtualization, such as consolidation, or is your “head in the cloud?”
2. Which workloads and applications will you be virtualizing, and why?
3. Is your organization ready to virtualize mission-critical applications?
4. Which virtualization software platform(s) are you considering or using?
5. Have you thought about your virtualization platform from a strategic perspective – in other words, have you considered how virtualization ties into your existing server environment today and how it will tie into your possible transition to the cloud in the future?
6. Which hardware solutions and platforms will deliver the best performance, scalability, ROI and the overall best chance of a successful deployment?

Wherever you are now, and whatever your rationale is for moving forward with virtualization, choosing the right virtualization platforms – hardware and software – will be among the most critical decisions you will be making to secure your IT infrastructure investment for the future. The reality is that businesses of all shapes and sizes are looking at the benefits that can be delivered by virtualization, including the benefits of cloud computing which can enable increased agility, continuity, scalability and performance, while continuing to keep costs under control.

Title:	Taking the Next Steps with Virtualization
Date:	2012-05-30
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Dell EqualLogic Overview
Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays are intelligent storage arrays that are designed to provide simple management and seamless expansion using innovative Dell Fluid Data™ technology. All PS Series storage arrays include SAN configuration features and capabilities that sense network connections, automatically build RAID sets, and conduct system health checks to help ensure that all components are fully functional.

EqualLogic PS Series arrays are based on a virtualized modular storage architecture that enables IT managers to purchase only the storage they need—when they need it—to help prevent both underutilization and over-provisioning. Using innovative Fluid Data technology, all EqualLogic PS Series arrays in a SAN work together to automatically manage data, load balance across all resources, and expand to meet growing storage needs.

Unidesk VDI Management Software
Unidesk, a strategic Dell partner, is offered by Dell as a validated virtual desktop management option for Dell Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DVS) Enterprise Infrastructure and DVS Virtual Labs. By replacing block-based cloning, image management, application virtualization, and profile management point tools with a more complete, unified solution, Unidesk makes it easier for IT organizations to package and deliver applications, and create, patch, and support fully personalized desktops hosted on VMware vSphere®. Unidesk’s patent-pending desktop layering technology integrates with Citrix® XenDesktop®, VMware View™, and other brokering solutions to enable enterprises to expand VDI to more users, reduce desktop operations costs up and cutting VDI storage capacity upwards of 70%.

Title:	Overcoming the Storage Challenges of Persistent Virtual Desktops with Dell EqualLogic Hybrid Arrays and Unidesk
Date:	2012-05-14
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Download Link:	Overcoming the Storage Challenges of Persistent Virtual Desktops with Dell EqualLogic Hybrid Arrays and Unidesk

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Storage networks provide several unique benefits over direct attached storage including:

• Increased throughput
• Improved flexibility
• Greater scalability
• Centralized management
• Multi-host clustering

While storage networking – the use of a shared storage and communications infrastructure – has been around for some time, it became increasingly popular with the advent of the Fibre Channel (FC) standard in the early to mid-1990s. Since then FC has been the predominant shared storage network protocol in use… that is, until the IP SCSI (iSCSI) storage networking protocol was developed in the early 2000’s.

The FC and iSCSI protocols both use an updated version of the original SCSI protocol adopted in the mid 1980’s for directly attaching storage devices to individual computing resources. Even so, both Storage Area Networking (SAN) standards use different methods of transmitting these SCSI commands between the computing resources and the storage resources. This paper provides an overview of the iSCSI protocol and concepts, as they pertain to the Dell EqualLogic PS Series of virtual storage arrays, for storage administrators with FC storage experience.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is another storage protocol for carrying SCSI commands, and has features similar to both FC and iSCSI. However, FCoE requires additional features such as Data Center Bridging (DCB) and 10 Gb Ethernet to properly support it and detailed discussion of these concepts are outside of the scope of this paper. This paper will focus on the similarities and differences between FC and EqualLogic iSCSI  SAN concepts.

While some of the concepts are similar for both FC and iSCSI protocols, there are differences in terminology and capability that must be understood to successfully design and manage an iSCSI solution such as the Dell EqualLogic PS Series SAN. The goal of this paper is not necessarily to convince anyone that is well entrenched in a FC storage environment into migrating to iSCSI, but simply to help those that are considering the move, or have already made that decision, and to enable a smooth adoption of EqualLogic iSCSI.

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VoIP applications are characterized by latency-sensitivity that dictates audio data be delivered at regular intervals to achieve good voice quality. Irregular delivery may lead to packet drops, severely deteriorating user experience. Therefore, timely processing and delivery of audio data is critically important to VoIP service. In the virtualized environment, however, meeting this requirement for VoIP applications is more challenging due to the additional layer of scheduling virtual machines (VMs) and processing network packets.

Despite such challenges, vSphere 5 is able to achieve great performance for VoIP applications thanks to the following reasons. First, vSphere 5 facilitates the highly optimized networking stack and paravirtualized device drivers to minimize virtualization overhead, adding little variance in packet delivery1. The overhead is usually in the order of tens of microseconds that are negligible, especially to VoIP applications, where packets need to be delivered at intervals of tens of milliseconds. Second, vSphere 5 gives each VM a fair share of CPU2, ensuring the predictable processing of audio data even under high CPU contention when running multiple VMs. Finally, the Network I/O Control (NetIOC) feature allows VoIP traffic to be isolated by partitioning physical network bandwidth. This helps to achieve the intended voice quality when VoIP traffic competes for shared network resources.

This paper illustrates that:

• Excellent out-of-the-box VoIP performance is achieved with a large number of users served by a commercial VoIP media server hosted on vSphere 5.
• vSphere 5 is able to maintain great VoIP performance when running a large number of instances of VoIP server; results showed that vSphere 5 provided good performance even when running 12 instances configured with a total of 48 vCPUs on a system with 8 cores, utilizing more than 90% of the physical CPUs.
• With Network I/O Control (NetIOC), vSphere 5 is able to preserve voice quality under high contention for network resources.

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In the eBook, Eckerson writes that BI professionals, despite their best efforts, currently operate in a federated world where critical data and analytical logic is spread across multiple databases and applications in various parts of an organization. A federated architecture knits these disparate environments together virtually rather than physically, Eckerson writes. It is neither centralized nor decentralized, but a hybrid of the two, maximizing the benefits of both options, while minimizing their downsides. Moreover he writes, a federated architecture is fluid, changing shape as an organization reinvents itself to better respond to new market realities. The BeyeNETWORK eBook describes how to create a federated BI architecture that aligns with organizational imperatives. Readers will:

• Learn the various options for architecting BI environments—centralized, decentralized, and federated—and their strengths and weaknesses using case studies.
• Discover the impact of organizational models on BI architectures as the two evolve in lockstep over time.
• Learn how to balance corporate and departmental interests when creating a BI architecture.
• Understand the role and value of data virtualization tools in a federated architecture.

“Contrary to popular opinion, a BI architecture is a dynamic environment, not a blueprint written in stone,” Eckerson said. “BI managers must define an architecture based on prevailing corporate strategies and then be ready to deviate from the plan when the business changes due to an unanticipated circumstance, such as a merger, acquisition, or new CEO.

“Thanks to the popularity of data center virtualization, many organizations are exploring the possibility of virtualizing their data as well to help manage these dynamic environments,” Eckerson added. “More importantly, advances in network speeds, CPU performance, and available memory have significantly increased the performance and scalability of data virtualization tools, expanding the range of applications they can support. Moreover, data virtualization vendors continue to enhance their query optimizers to handle more complex queries and larger data volumes.”

“Historically, BI data federation has been the most popular data virtualization starting point,” added Composite Software CTO David Besemer. “Data virtualization is an excellent way to expand BI reporting to sources beyond the existing cubes or data marts. Popular BI vendors have promoted this approach and even embedded data virtualization offerings in their BI solutions to simplify this method of adoption. The benefits include both more complete and actionable information and faster time-to-solution,” Besemer said.

The eBook is available free of charge and can be download below:

Title:	Federating and Virtual Architectures For BI Professionals
Date:	2011-12-22
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• Server virtualization is widely used—74% of respondents are currently using server virtualization and another 19% are planning deployments.
• The number of virtualized servers is relatively small today—58% of respondents have virtualized 30% or less of their servers
• The number of virtualized servers is growing—the percentage of virtual machines (VMs) run in production will increase from 39% to 58% within two years

This trend is accelerating with new multi-core servers that support many more VMS per physical server and meet the requirements of resource-demanding, mission-critical applications.

As server capabilities grow, many data centers are finding their 1Gbps Ethernet (GbE) infrastructure is the next limiting factor for server virtualization. The solution is migration to 10Gbps Ethernet (10GbE) and the transition is gaining momentum as prices drop for 10GbE adapters and switches.

As part of this next- generation iSCSI environment, VMware introduced support for 10GbE iSCSI adapters with VMware vSphere 4.1. With this new capability, data center administrators have more choices for 10GbE iSCSI deployments. The goal of this technical brief is to provide information that will be helpful when choosing network connectivity for a 10GbE iSCSI solution.

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Many cloud service providers can deliver the security that enterprises need and SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates are part of the solution. More specifically, SSL is the solution for securing data when it is in motion. The goal of this white paper is to help enterprises make pragmatic decisions about where and when to use cloud solutions by outlining specific issues that enterprises should raise with hosting providers before selecting a vendor, and by highlighting the ways in which SSL from a trusted certificate authority can help enterprises conduct business in the cloud with confidence.

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As dependence on email has grown, so has its governmental and legal scrutiny. Poor data retention practices expose businesses of all sizes and in all industries to a host of potential legal problems, including heavy fines imposed by regulatory agencies, and presumed guilt or damaged reputation if subpoenaed records can’t be produced.

This white paper outlines the basics of email archiving, specifically with a cloud-powered service, to help avoid some of these problems and get a more secure hold on your organisation's email data. Gain insight on everything from the basics of email archiving to choosing the right solution for your company - read on to learn more.

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The white paper points out typical approaches to improving SAP using an Oracle database performance, such as optimizing SQL statements and queries and adding processors or memory to the database server. Typical approaches that focus on storage performance include adding more disks and implementing RAID. However, these methods can be costly and/or produce minor improvements.

The paper explains that the Kaminario K2 all solid-state SAN storage system, which uses a combination of Flash and DRAM SSD storage, is a game-changer for SAP environments running on Oracle. The K2 delivers higher shared storage capacity with much lower cost and the ability to select the SSD media (Flash or DRAM) that is right for the Oracle implementation. The Kaminario K2 is powered by Flash ioMemory from Fusion-io. The Kaminario K2 provides breakthrough database performance and dramatically improves SAP performance and scalability.

Founded by storage experts from EMC, NetApp and IBM, Kaminario is leading the Flash and DRAM SSD revolution in high performance SAN storage. The Kaminario K2 family of all solid-state SAN storage eliminates I/O bottlenecks and dramatically reduces latency to accelerate critical business applications at a significantly lower cost and smaller footprint than legacy SAN storage. The Kaminario K2 is the first enterprise-grade SAN storage built from the ground up to take full advantage of modern Flash and DRAM SSD performance. With built-in self-healing high availability, modular scale-out architecture, open X86 components and media freedom of choice, the K2 consistently delivers ultra-low latency, tens of GB/s of throughput and millions of IOPS.

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IDC Government Insights has noted accelerating deployments of virtualized desktops in K-12 schools across the globe. Catalysts for this change include significant reductions in overall PC spending and improved system performance among those educational organizations that have switched to virtualized PC desktop solutions. This success is real and measurable.

A confluence of factors has brought desktop virtualization to the forefront of investment decision making. These issues range from the technical (such as aging desktop machines and the need for upgrades to Windows 7 from XP or Vista) to industry forces at work (such as the desire to provision district wide access to applications to physically separated schools and mobile teachers). But the overarching drivers of desktop virtualization are the educational goals that increasingly rely on student and teacher access to desktops and online educational materials.

For these and other reasons, desktop virtualization is a technology whose time has come for cost-conscious educational institutions. It follows on the heels of server virtualization, which has helped school districts realize significant cost savings by reducing the number of servers they maintain and by streamlining the overall physical and energy-related footprint of their datacenters. This success makes desktop virtualization the next logical target for many schools. The goal is ultimately to reduce costs, enhance IT service delivery and the end-user experience, and foster an improved learning environment.

IN THIS WHITE PAPER
This White Paper was written by IDC Government Insights and sponsored by VMware. It explores the potential advantages of using desktop virtualization for PCs rather than taking the traditional approach where every computer has its own operating system, resident applications, memory, processing power, and storage.

The methodology for this document is based on in-depth customer interviews and existing IDC desktop virtualization research. IDC Government Insights talked with IT managers in four school districts that have made a commitment to desktop virtualization using VMware. We asked them what worked, what proved to be a challenge, what they might do differently, and what specific benefits they've experienced.

All interviewees said that they achieved significant productivity gains, reductions in costs, and improved services for end users. All are in the midst of expanding their initial commitment to desktop virtualization.

Title:	Desktop Virtualization in K-12 Schools: The Time Has Come
Date:	2011-09-05
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