IBM 'Virtualization Engine' Maximizes Computing Power

In an effort to simplify virtual computing, IBM has glued together tools previously scattered across its eServer lineup and developed a preview of its Virtualization Engine. The software reclaims and consolidates unused processing power and storage systems with the end result being purely economic - customers acquire more "bang for the buck."

Big Blue's Virtualization Engine could be considered a jack of all trades. The technology partitions a single CPU into up to ten independent servers, harnesses the power of grid computing, manages mixed environments, and provides customers with storage virtualization.

"The most immediately valuable features will be micro-partitioning, which lets users split up every CPU into up to ten pieces, each of which looks to applications like a completely independent server, yet is completely fault-isolated and security-protected from the others, and IBM Director Multiplatform - a common console across IBM's different system kinds, and potentially across other server manufacturers' products as well," said Jonathan Eunice, a Principal Analyst with Illuminata.

IBM claims that its years of experience in the mainframe space have allowed it to design "micro-partitioning" technology. IBM provides the example of a four processor system becoming a 40-way system running multiple operating systems. Micro-partitioning also includes virtual networking, memory and LAN capabilities.

Rival Sun Microsystems recently updated its Solaris operating system to divvy up processing power in much the same way, while also offering storage virtualization.

IBM Director Multiplatform is the company's answer to the staggering cost of pooling together and administering all of the pieces of an IT infrastructure. It works by serving as a single point of control for IBM and third party systems, clusters and grids. As a result, IBM claims that customers will no longer need to train personnel to be knowledgeable of distinct systems and will realize lower cost of ownership.

Workload management and provisioning tools powered by IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager are also included. Big Blue says that its provisioning technology can be used to add new servers to meet spikes in demand in minutes – not days.

With its Virtualization Engine, IBM is supporting distributed systems based upon on Open Grid Services Architecture and WebSphere technology.  Grids form the basis of a new type of supercomputer by pooling together physically separate machines to balance and solve complicated tasks.

While initially the gilded plaything of researchers, grid computing is being harnessed in finance, engineering, and even the battle against cancer. Grid computing can be sized to the task at hand: Campus Grids are local, while Global Grids can span countries.

Business information can also span multiple independent storage devices. According to IBM, "TotalStorage Open Software virtualizes and centralizes storage across heterogeneous storage devices to help clients optimize utilization, improve application availability, and increase administrator productivity." This component of the Virtualization Engine utilizes IBM's SAN Volume Controller and the SAN File System. 

"Virtualization Engine is a package with a lot of different parts, but the basic idea is to bundle together a good number of virtualization components from across the eServer lineup and ship them with every server," Illuminata's Eunice told BetaNews.