Server virtualization will continue to mature in 2006, yet it will not develop into what we really need: accurately allotted resources and a system that warns us when CPU, memory and disk space are low. Still, the new year will bring more versatility, even though we won't make it to complete data center virtualization. The server side has come close, but the storage side still has a way to go.
There are two major uses for server virtualization: consolidating servers and running a single app on multiple servers. Server consolidation will undergo few changes--little more than some support for new hardware and operating systems. Running one large application on multiple servers presents difficult problems. What if the server accessing the network or the SAN goes down? What if the information needed by a CPU on one machine is stored on another? Such problems have dogged virtualization vendors for a long time.
The answer might lie with solutions like Virtual Iron, which virtualizes commodity hardware, or IBM, which has discussed expanding mainframe virtualization technology to commodity hardware. Whoever supports the most hardware with the most solid solution will win this race, because database and e-mail server requirements are growing at an alarming rate, and clustering is just a stop-gap measure.
Don MacVittie is a senior technology editor at Network Computing. Previously, he worked as an application engineer at WPS Resources, a Green Bay, Wis., utility-holding company. Write to him at dmacvittie@ nwc.com.
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