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

2. 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.

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

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

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

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

7. 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

8. 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

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

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

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. Discussion