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Diskeeper, the company from which Microsoft licenses its defrag utility used in Windows systems, has been known and respected as an expert on enterprise hard-drive defragmentation.
In simple terms, defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically organizing the bits of each file closer together — and as contiguous as possible — on the disk. It also creates larger regions of free storage space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation as the disk goes through its daily use.
A “defragged” computer is noticeably faster and more efficient than one that hasn’t had this process done in a while. And that’s your Green IT lesson for the day.
So here is today’s news item: Diskeeper is now taking all that defrag experience and extending it to a new market: optimizing virtual machines. The Burbank, Calif.-based company has begun shipping V-locity, a new virtual platform performance optimizer designed to maximize server speeds on Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor.
V-locity not only performs defragmentation functions in the virtual space, but it also synchronizes — thus optimizing — all those complex transactions that take place between host and multiple guest operating systems zillions of times per day.
“The need to go beyond the scope of defragmentation was necessary,” Diskeeper Product Manager Michael Materie said, “because when multiple systems share resources on a virtual platform, the ‘sharing’ among the VMs turns into competition for resources. This problem with VMs is fully addressed with our virtual optimizer.”
Diskeeper uses its InvisiTasking processing software to make sure there are no resource conflicts within these virtual machines.
V-locity also frees up storage resources by eliminating something called virtual hard drive “bloat.” This is the wasted disk space that results when virtual disks are set to dynamically grow but don’t shrink back when users or applications remove data. V-locity compacts the VHD, thereby preventing waste and allowing IT managers to better allocate their virtual storage resources.
If you’re looking to run a tighter, more efficient virtualized storage system, you probably should check this out. Go here for more information.