Enter virtualisation technology

Desmond Nair doesn't have one of the more exciting jobs at Microsoft. He doesn't deal with Web 2.0, nor does he design games for the Xbox.

Nair is the group manager for servers in the Gulf.

While server technology doesn't create the buzz of other Microsoft products, Windows Server 2008, due to be released in the Gulf in March, will for the first time include virtualisation technology, one of the most-talked about trends in the industry.

"Virtualisation is the attractive part of Windows Server," he said. Nair said during his conversation with IT managers, the topic of virtualisation is second only to security.

Virtualisation isn't easy to explain and covers not only servers, but storage, networks, desktops and even something called "presence" virtualisation.

The general idea is to make a computer do the work of several, with each "virtual" computer acting as a single machine. Unlike on normal devices, were all the information is on a device is accessible, users of a virtualised device will only be able to access a portion of the machine.

For organisational purposes, as well as security, areas are partitioned off from on another. In the office environment, it means that IT sections will no longer have to have a server for mail, another for storage, and so on.

Storage

While much of the talk today about virtualisation involves servers, the technology is also growing in the storage sector.

"The growing amount of data out there is becoming harder and harder to manage, and companies are now going virtual," said Hu Yoshida, vice-president and chief technology officer of Hitachi, who said that utilisation of storage devices is usually low.

But the spiralling collection of data, particularly thanks to Web 2.0 and censor data - Yoshida estimates that data collected from a commercial airliner's black box can result in one terabytes (1,000,000 megabytes) of data - is causing virtualisation to become a necessity.

The low utilisation of machines is in part what is driving IT departments to virtualise. The new technology allows companies to get more out of the computer they have and cut down on the need to obtain new ones. "People are paying tens of thousands of dirhams, if not hundreds of thousands, for servers, and if you look at the processor utilisation, it's like 40 per cent," Nair said.

Even 40 per cent may be generous. IDC, a company that analyses the computer industry, estimates the server utilisation in the region may be as lower as 10 to 20 per cent, with an average of 13 per cent.

Yet despite those figures, adoption of virtualisation in the region in still low.

Margaret Adam, a senior research analyst for IDC based in Dubai, thinks IT departments in the region have developed a bad tendency to just throw money at server problems.

"For example, if performance is low, they'll throw another server at it instead of actually looking at where performance problems are coming in," she said.

But Nair says that IT sections are going to have to get away from "going out and buying singular servers to do singular things." He said that within 12 to 18 months, companies will start to see how virtualisation can benefit them in other ways, including reducing power bills and the need for floor space.

Running out of space

"What is happening is you are running out of space. You're running out of power in data centres. You're having heat problems, because you need to have heat dissipation," he said. "So even though it's not a money problem, it becomes environmental, so it's definitely getting the attention of all of the businesses."

Nair says the problem with implementing virtualisation involves IT managers who may be having a hard time thinking of virtualisation as "real."

"When I run a server today, I see it. It's tangible. I can feel it," he said. "When I run virtual, I have 10 [servers] running on the same box doing completely different things, and as an administrator you got to go through a cultural change to manage these things."