Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

IBM Boosts Server Virtualization For Small and Mid-Sized Businesses: Page 3 of 4

Another PowerVM feature is Lx86, which allows a System p server to run most Linux applications built for x86 servers without modification or recompilation. IBM includes the Lx86 feature in PowerVM without additional charge as an incentive to get x86 server users to consolidate servers on the System p. Lx86 is a product of Transitive Corp., a supplier of cross-platform virtualization.

Handy said 70% of System p Power6-equipped servers ship with virtualization as part of the product, a sharp turnaround from IBM's 1999 introduction of virtualization on AIX.

"The Unix customer has been a little slow to adopt virtualization," in part due to the wish to keep database servers or big CRM or ERP applications running without interference. Also, greater utilization gains could be realized by virtualizing x86 servers before Unix servers. Industry analysts claim the typical x86 server utilizes 10% to 15% of the CPU cycles available. Handy said a typical Unix server utilizes 20% to 25%. Mainframes are typically utilized at 60% to 80% of their capacity, he added.

Unix server administrator interest began to change in 2006-2007, as the percentage of servers shipping preloaded with IBM virtualization software rose to 40%. Then the Power6 generation of servers started shipping in June, and virtualization became a dominant feature, shipping with 70% of systems.

It used to be unusual for a database server to also host an application that used the database. "Today you might find the Web tier [Web server and application] right in front of the database on the same server," thanks to virtualization, he said.