Excess Computing Capacity Usages – Virtual Machines
We’ve been discussing some of the changes we have seen in information technology implementations due to the increasing capacity and reduced cost of computers and networks. We considered multi-layered software applications as a continuing emerging strategy.
Another strategy that continues to emerge with higher capacity hardware is Virtual Machines. When virtual machines first began to emerge in the Intel based hardware it was a niche implementation that would benefit from Virtual Machines. Actual performance was measurably degraded, especially for database systems.
I remember the woes of the DBA forced to deploy heavily utilized databases on a Virtual Machine and the headaches that resulted. There were some specific situations where virtual machines with reduced capacity really made sense. Organizations with many separate systems requiring isolation, and therefore with extremely low utilization of the individual hardware, were the primary benefactor of virtual machines in the early days.
Today, one of the first places I consider for hosting software is on the cloud. We know many of the benefits of the cloud as a hosting platform. However, the Cloud most often consists of Virtual Machines. Virtual Machines allow us to carve out limited resources from a much larger capacity computer based on the necessary resources for the client.
Once again, and for good reasons, we are utilizing a less optimized implementation because the benefits so vastly outweigh the reduced performance. Multiple virtual machines will outperform a dedicated machine of yesteryear for the same cost.
Are there other uses you have found for the increased computing capacity in current machines? You can share your thoughts by sending an Email to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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