INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure

In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As we are using technology in every aspect of our organization, it is our responsibility to always
achieve our company goals using technologies that are cost-effective and make use of their
resources more effectively. This report is presented to propose the use of virtualization
technology in the current IT infrastructure of the company, highlighting the comparison between
the traditional model and the differences and advantage the new technology provides over the
older one.

Our company has been following the traditional model of server implementation, i.e. one service
per server. This presents a problem of underutilization of the server’s resources as they can
service 12 jobs per server. This is not only generating unnecessary costs but also consuming more
resources for operation. This problem can be addressed by introducing virtualization where we
can operate multiple services in each server cutting costs, and downtime, and increasing
productivity and efficiency.

INTRODUCTION
Times change, and with time, change the way we do things. The traditional IT infrastructure
model currently being used has been working well throughout the years suiting the needs of the
organization. But as businesses grow, so does the digital infrastructure. As current business needs
have evolved from the past, there is a need for robust and resilient systems that host multiple
services at once. These systems can accommodate the transition that the organization is
experiencing. The older servers were designed in a way that can only host a single application on a
single machine. They had their limitations as they had no backup servers and worked as a single-
blade server. They were monotonous and all the resources were concentrated to accomplish a
single task. So, in the future, these resources will be outdated and remain non-performing assets
as most of the servers in organizations are replaced with virtualized servers.

The modern server system proposed can run multiple applications (e-mail, web server, and
Database) in a virtualized environment, not only saving a lot of resources costs but also offering
Redeployment and reduction of machines. These multiple virtual servers are a single physical
server hosting multiple services at once sharing resources (CPU, RAM, Storage) controlled by s
central system known as hypervisor. The new model will be deployed in such a way that
concentrates on the core service that the organization offers, making them profitable and
generating more sales in the future.

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 INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure
In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

BODY
Introduction to virtualization

Virtualization is a concept in IT that incorporates the process of running multiple Operating

systems in a single machine. These operating systems each host multiple applications as a service.
The application runs in such an environment as they were physically independent of each other. A
single server has powerful specifications that are adequate to run multiple services. The resources
such as RAM and CPU can both be logically separated to act as a single entity. This concept
revolutionized the way server hosting is done. There are multiple types of virtualization
depending on the company’s needs. Some of them are:

Application Virtualization

An application running in a system such as an E-mail service, Website, or DBMS is virtualized so

that the individual applications in a virtualized environment encompass all the functionalities of a
particular application and run them individually from the embedded OS. Microsoft App-V, Citrix
Virtual Apps, and Desktops are some of the platforms for application Virtualization.

Data virtualization

Data virtualization as the name suggests is the logical separation of data from diverse sources that
provides flexibility in combining accessing and transforming datasets for easier accessibility. It
breaks the traditional database and provides fast availability reducing time and cost.

Network virtualization

Network virtualization switches network resources from hardware-dependent to software-based.

It consists of separating software from hardware and network equipment so the network
functionalities become independent of the physical equipment supporting them.

Pros and cons of Virtualization

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 INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure
In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

Virtualization has numerous advantages as it is becoming the new trend for the IT culture. From
agile system to business scalability and increased performance, the benefit is numerous. Some of
them are:

 Redundancy
 Growth in IT productivity
 Better Business continuity
 Simpler and customized data center management

Limitations

 Greater Initial Investment

 Security risks
 Scalability complications
 Highly skilled manpower to operate

To develop and deploy the proposed framework into the organization’s working model, a
technical study was conducted. This included the technical aspects such as the type of physical
server required, model, type of server virtualization preferred, and its reflection towards the
traditional model. One of the major concerns of this approach was to allocate and identify the
system requirements used in the physical resources such as CPU, RAM, and STORAGE as it will be
shared with the types of services running in it. After the identification of the suitable system
performed by studying the server load that each server is currently using, we determined that we
will use the combination of hardware-assisted virtualization and OS-level virtualization. This is
basically sharing the hardware and splitting the operating system to support multiple
applications. To better understand how the transition will provide better productivity and
efficiency over the old systems, I have included technical review of three applications that we are
currently hosting on the server.

System 1 Analysis of Payroll

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 INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure
In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

From the analysis of System 1, we can understand that the System possesses the capability to
perform a higher rate of tasks than it is usually handling. The CPU, bandwidth, and Network usage
are lower compared to its system capacity which concludes that the system’s resource is being
underutilized. Therefore the system is utilizing more electricity and cooling than required
ultimately incurring more costs. With virtualization, we can share these resources to support SQL
database and payroll on the same server.

System 2 Analysis

From the figure, we can understand that the system was designed to withstand small range of
operations in the initial phase of operation. Currently, due to the growth of service, it is
experiencing a fairly higher consumption of resources. The above system can be virtualized into a
more customized system to ha withstand specific functions based on its resource.

System 3 Analysis

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 INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure
In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

As the system controls the database of the company, it is experiencing fluctuation in memory
usage as well as network bandwidth. It has adequate CPU and memory to handle operation.
In terms of network bandwidth, the server seems to be doing more work at certain hours, and at
those hours experiences a slower rate of operation. This type of system can better work with
resource sharing that includes CPU, Network bandwidth, and Memory. One of the many perks of
virtualization allows the system to share resources according to the need.

Taking into account the three systems, it can be observed that in some scenarios, the system is
underused while in some cases the system resources are exhausted. As mentioned earlier, the
proposed model can evenly distribute system resources to prioritize the major operation areas
between the systems. The model centers itself on making the system more reliable for functioning.
Moreover, it benefits the company by cutting costs and employing minimal human resources to
function the servers.

Cost analysis

As a part of the normal annual hardware upgrade process, it has been identified that there are 200
servers to be replaced this year. All these servers have the same hardware configuration. The
system resources of each server might differ according to their department of use. It has also been
known that all these servers serve three major operations, Payroll, SQL database, and Conveyor
Control. The following table represents the cost analysis table in comparison with the traditional
model and the newer one.

Server type Number of Guests Cost of Total cost Redundancy

hosts supported individual cost
host
Traditional 1 1 $ 1500 $ 300,000 $ 600,000
Virtualization 12 12 $ 10,000 $ 170,000 $ 340,000

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 INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure
In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

The above cost analysis table represents the cost of upgrading the traditional server and the
virtualized server. We can clearly see that virtualized server can handle 12 guests and can service
12 different hosts. In addition to this, we can see a huge difference in cost between the traditional
and virtualized server. In conclusion, the above table represents that virtualization is the best
option as it is cost-efficient as well as services multiple clients per server.

CONCLUSION
Virtualization is the most sought-after technology that has been in the industry for 3 decades. Its
concept has evolved over the years. From a simple concept of a logical partition of mainframe
computers, it has touched every aspect of technology (Network, Data, Server). It has served small-
scale businesses that have cost constraints and large companies that want their own personalized
data centers. The cost analysis done above clearly states its importance and need in the
organization, as it can maximize profit using minimal resources. Therefore, the management
needs to strongly consider this transition as it will be the next step in providing service in a more
managed and effective way.

References

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E15458_01/doc.22/e15444/intro.htm

https://opensource.com/resources/virtualization

https://www.hitechnectar.com/blogs/virtualization-types/

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/cloud-virtualization-disadvantages/

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/5-benefits-of-virtualization

https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/virtualization

https://www.vmware.com/ca/solutions/virtualization.html

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 INFO-6075 Virtualization Infrastructure
In-class Assignment 2 – Justification of Virtualization

Avishek Prakash Giri [email protected]

https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/feature/Case-studies-show-the-benefits-of-
virtualization

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Case-Study-On-Virtualization-PJSJ57J38NR

https://www.cdw.ca/it-solutions/case-studies/virtualization/smead-manufacturing.aspx

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