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Hewlett-Packard Co. is rolling out a host of new software and services designed to simplify the management of virtualized environments and further the integration between its legacy platforms and Integrity line of servers based on Intel Corp.s 64-bit Itanium systems.
HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., is standardizing its high-end systems on the Itanium chip. Virtualization lets users run multiple applications or operating systems on a single system through the use of virtual machines. The technology increases system utilization and reduces the amount of physical hardware needed in a data center.
HP officials said that virtualization—which started in the mainframe world and has extended to industry-standard systems and even processors—is getting more interest from IT administrators and many enterprises are making the move from talking about it to implementing it.
HP later this year will make Integrity VM support available on HP-UX 11i; next year, support will be available for Microsoft Corp.s Windows Server 2003 and Linux, officials said. It will give users a common set of tools to manage multiple operating systems—including OpenVMS—in virtualized environments on a single Integrity box, a key consideration for customers such as David Grant.
Grant, data center manager for Ottawa-based Mitel Networks Corp., said Mitel has been using virtualization technology in two rp8420 HP Unix servers to reduce the time it takes to deploy applications from weeks to hours and the number of systems needed from 12 to two.
Grant said HPs move to enable multiple operating systems to run in virtualized environments on Integrity systems will allow Mitel to begin incorporating Itanium systems and operating systems other than HP-UX into the data center.
“The next move will be bringing Itanium and Integrity, and Microsoft [Windows] and Linux, into the environment,” Grant said.
Other new products on the way from HP include Integrity Essentials Virtualization Manager and Essentials Capacity Advisor, part of HPs Virtual Server Environment for Integrity and 9000 servers that will let users plan workload capacity and manage and configure physical and virtual servers from a single console.
Enhancements to HP-UX 11i, designed to expand the Unix systems virtualization capability, include the Virtualization Licensing Program to reduce licensing costs. In addition, HP is teaming with SWsoft Inc., of Herndon, Va., to offer SWsofts Virtuozzo virtualization technology for Linux on the Integrity servers.
HPs virtualization push
New and enhanced products include:
- Integrity Essentials Virtualization Manager, for managing virtual and physical servers
- Integrity Essentials Capacity Advisor, for planning application workloads
- Expansion of Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager to support OpenVMS on Integrity
- Extending Integrity VMs later this year to support HP-UX 11i