Many of us have noticed the transition of desktop and server manufacturers from 32-bit based systems to those that run 64-bit. In fact currently you will have to do a lot of digging to find a system that is 32-bit. 32-bit based versions of operating systems such as Windows and Linux variants can run on 64-bit hardware but the opposite is not true. For a number of years the major operating system companies have been offering consumers and businesses the option of choosing either 32-bit or 64-bit versions. It appears that this trend may soon be coming to an end.

Additionally many major application releases in the past several years have been available in 64-bit versions only and require the underlying operating system to also be running 64-bit. The list of software that is available strictly in a 64-bit version is getting longer.

There are definitely PROS and CONS to the migration to 64-bit technology. The majority of the CONS are based on up front restrictions in the inability to upgrade your 32-bit operating system builds. In most cases the migration will be just that, a migration utilizing a fresh install of the 64-bit operating system. In environments where there are dozens to hundreds of servers, this will be quite time consuming and in a lot of cases impossible based on legacy applications. Many of us already support legacy applications on legacy operating systems and in a lot of the cases there’s not too much to alleviate that. There are technologies that do make this type of legacy support much easier to deal with including different virtualization solutions.

Another small CON that has lessened over time is the unavailability of 64-bit drivers for peripherals. When 64-bit systems were first being sold there were many instances where drivers simply were not available for 64-bit systems much like when a new operating system is released. This is not a significant issue these days as most peripheral manufacturers have seen the writing on the wall about the proliferation of 64-bit systems.

So, why should I bother migrating to a 64-bit version of an operating system? Well, in the case of Microsoft and likely with the Linux systems, support will eventually come to an end. Most of us have learned over the years how valuable vendor support for an operating system can be. This shows up mainly in cases of security vulnerabilities and patches. Anything we can do to mitigate our vulnerabilities is wise.

In addition to risk of ending vendor support there are some real performance advantages in running 64-bit operating systems, applications, and hardware. For most single application server builds this increase in performance will not be noticeable as the performance increase is really only witnessed on systems that are CPU or memory bound. The biggest beneficiary of the 64-bit performance boost is Virtualization Hosts. Because in most cases the goal of virtualization projects is to consolidate physical servers, the better the virtual host resources perform in the case of 64-bit systems, the more load you can put on them. This equates to a higher consolidation ratio which in turn equates to lower cost!

So, if you do have the option now, choose to install a 64-bit operating system. In the long run it will save you time and money especially when the day comes that you don’t have an option.

Virtualization technologies can help your business shrink the footprint and costs associated with your IT operations. Diamond Technologies was recently featured in a News Journal article highlighting the benefits of Virtualization technologies. Full article here.

One challenge that many organizations face when working on leveraging server virtualization in their environment is the inclusion of server builds that utilize specific physical peripherals such as serial based devices. The challenge presents itself in the form of being able to leverage the High Availability features of Virtualization Technology. In a highly available Virtual Infrastructure the Virtual Machine builds have access to its required resources regardless of which Virtualization Host it is currently running on. One way to overcome this challenge is to install identical physical peripherals on each of the Virtualization Hosts in your environment. In this scenario your virtual machine builds will have access to the peripheral regardless of which Host that they are running on. The problem is that in addition to this not being a recommended approach from the Virtualization Solution vendors, it becomes cost prohibitive in larger Virtual Infrastructures and decreases the total available COM ports (or whatever port you are utilizing). The more effective solution is to virtualize these devices within your Virtual Machines and send the requests to a network based peripheral instead. Because these devices reside on the Ethernet network, there is no need to install direct attached peripheral devices on the individual Virtual Host Systems.

There are many vendors who provide solutions in this space but they all work in the same manner. There is a physical device that bridges your Ethernet network directly with the external peripheral such as a serial based or USB based device. This device enables the communication controls to be transmitted over your existing network infrastructure. Because these devices are connected directly to the network, where the communication controls originate is irrelevant to the end device. The other piece of the solution is specialized software typically provided by the vendor who manufactured the peripheral bridge that allows the Operating System within your Virtual Machine to create a virtual port that transmits its commands over the network. To the Operating System these virtual ports look exactly like their physical counterparts. Once these virtual ports are available from within your virtual machine you can use any application to send communication controls to the end device, completing the function.

Because this solution separates the physical device from the Virtual Host or Virtual Machine, with many vendors a by-product is the ability to share these network based devices amongst several unique Virtual Machines.

Also of note, this solution can be utilized on physical server systems that have not been virtualized yet using the same virtual port application and physical network device.

X86 Server Virtualization Technology is still relatively young but the limitations for creating a comprehensive Virtual Infrastructure are dissipating quickly.

Virtualization Technologies are the best way for your company to “Go Green” with its information technology.  Virtualization allows you to run many “virtual computers” on a single physical machine.  The benefits are numerous, including simplified management and improved business continuity, but the Big Green reason is energy savings, which can be dramatic.  According to CIO Magazine, “Industry experts say by 2010 the cost to power and cool data center equipment is likely to exceed the cost of the hardware itself, and energy costs may soon represent more than half of the total cost of running a data center.”

Here’s five reasons why we think Virtualization is a must for your information technology strategy.

Server Consolidation – This one is almost too simple.  Virtualization allows you to consolidate your servers, often in a ratio of 10:1 or better.  What this means is that if today you have ten physical computers running your business, with Virtualization you can reduce that to one or two machines.  The benefits are almost obvious.  Reduced computer hardware costs, reduced power consumption, reduced cooling requirements, reduced floor space requirements, and on and on.

Infrastructure Optimization – It is estimated that most servers are utilized only 15% – 20%.  Think about it, those expensive servers (the ones that IT tells you need replacement every three years anyway) are being grossly underutilized.  By consolidating your servers in a virtual computing platform, it is estimated that server utilization goes up to about 80%.  Now that’s a better use of those resources !

Business Continuity – In a 24 X 7 world your business cannot afford disruption of its IT services.  And while disasters and unplanned downtime get the big headlines, planned downtime for hardware maintenance and system updates is the cause of the majority of service downtime.  Virtualization technologies provide amazingly fast failover and recovery capabilities for both planned and unplanned outages, allowing your business to continue operations, virtually uninterrupted.

Desktop Virtualization – When thinking about Virtualization, most people think of the server side of things.  Virtualizing the desktop encapsulates the desktop operating system, applications and user data as a set of files called a virtual machine that can be stored centrally.  This approach provides a number of the key advantages including centralized configuration and management, the ability to enable stronger policy enforcement and tighter data security and expedited deployment.

Multiple Operating Systems, One Platform – If you’re like most larger organizations today, you’ve probably got a mix of Windows, Unix and Linux varieties running in your shop.  Virtualization technologies from VMware allow you to run all of those operating systems on the same physical hardware, at the same time!  That’s right, you can have Windows and Linux virtual machines running on the same physical computer.  The benefits?  No more dedicated hardware for different operating systems, reduced costs, simplified operations and more. 

Diamond Technologies announces its partnership with VMware, an industry leader in virtualization technologies.

Business continuity, “Green IT”, server consolidation and desktop virtualization are some of the reasons companies are choosing virtualization technologies and VMware for their IT computing infrastructure. Virtualization is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally changing the way that people compute. Today’s powerful x86 computer hardware was designed to run a single operating system and a single application. This leaves most machines vastly underutilized. Virtualization lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine, sharing the resources of that single computer across multiple environments.

Diamond Technologies has been successfully helping organizations leverage this exciting technology for many years and we are excited to announce our partnership with VMware. Our experience includes helping the State of Delaware, New Castle County and the City of Wilmington to improve their IT efficiency and reducing their total cost of IT ownership using VMware products and technologies.