Server Virtualization IT Steering Committee, March 11, 2009 Jens Haeusser Director, Strategy UBC IT

Our Challenge How can we deliver research, learning, and administrative applications to the UBC community in the most efficient and flexible manner? Presentation focuses on server virtualization, but why are we doing it? Not to virtualize servers, but to provide UBC with the most flexible application delivery environment.

Our Challenge How can we deliver research, learning, and administrative applications to the UBC community in the most efficient and flexible manner?

Our Challenge How can we deliver research, learning, and administrative applications to the UBC community in the most efficient and flexible manner?

Our Challenge How can we deliver research, learning, and administrative applications to the UBC community in the most efficient and flexible manner?

Agenda What is Server Virtualization? What are the benefits? Implementation at UBC Discussion

What is Server Virtualization? Many diverse physical servers on campus. Old model- one server, one OS, only thing the users see/care about are the end applications. Use 10% of your brain- myth for humans, true for servers. UBC and industry average 5-15% server utilization

What is Server Virtualization? Servers run a hypervisor, also called virtual machine monitor (VMM) Individual operating systems think they are still running on physical hardware

What is Server Virtualization? Server can run more than one kind of operating system at a time- Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.

What is Server Virtualization? Industry average- 16 servers consolidate to one VM server Born out by UBC IT’s current virtualization project.

This allows UBC IT to consolidate from over 200 physical servers to a single blade server chassis.

Flexibility and Scalability Provision in minutes, not weeks What are the benefits? Flexibility and Scalability Provision in minutes, not weeks Simplify maintenance Copy, clone, and replicate Backup and Disaster Recovery Continuous data replication No user impact from hardware failure Recover in seconds, not weeks Enable Digital preservation

What are the benefits - Sustainability Up to 80% reduction in energy usage 7000kWh per server annually Dramatically reduced CO2 emissions 4 tons per server annually 1.5 cars per server Potential savings of over 4.5 GWh of electricity and 2,500 tons of CO2 per year at UBC

What are the benefits – Cost Savings Direct Costs 50% reduction in hardware 40% reduction in networking 60% reduction in power and cooling Indirect Costs 75% reduction in provisioning 20% reduction in maintenance 55% reduction in downtime and disaster recovery Costs based on UBC IT actuals from existing virtualization effort, not guestimates Increased storage costs Annual savings $1 million Costs are minimum savings- true costs potentially much lower Shift faculty resources to supporting research and learning, not plumbing Potential 5 year direct savings over $2 million, indirect savings over $15 million

Build on success of UBC Data Network Implementation at UBC Build on success of UBC Data Network Campus-wide infrastructure, local control Expand existing service Phased rollout Conduct survey of existing servers Gradual replacement of aging servers Target over 400 administrative servers Enterprise support 24/7 monitoring and support Transparent metrics One coherent central infrastructure Local config and management Hybrid approach- best of both worlds Metrics- all costs, performance, availability

Implementation Challenges Governance Role of IT Steering and other committees Mandate or incentives Funding to scale out infrastructure Pricing structure Low enough to encourage adoption, high enough to constrain demand University wide governance is required for virtualization to be successful Financial model and funding structure is key

Summary Migrate from disparate servers to campus-wide infrastructure Allow distributed IT to focus on enabling research and learning Dramatic improvements to flexibility and reliability Large environmental and cost savings Requirement for strong and effective governance

Discussion