Microsoft Integrated Virtualization Whitepaper

Transcription

1 Microsoft Integrated Virtualization Whitepaper Published: June 2010 (Version 1.0) 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. For the latest information, visit

2 Contents 1. Introduction Virtualization Trends and Customer Needs Microsoft Virtualization Enables Dynamic IT How Microsoft Virtualization Changes the Game Microsoft Integrated Virtualization: From the Desktop and Datacenter, to the Cloud Microsoft Virtualization Key Benefits... 6 Better Value... 6 Increased Availability... 6 Improved Business Agility Top 5 Reasons to Choose Microsoft Virtualization What Key Components Make Microsoft Virtualization Unique? Datacenter Dynamic Foundation Desktop Flexible Access Microsoft Optimized Desktop Virtualization Benefits Windows Optimized Desktop Virtualization Scenarios Cloud Elastic Infrastructure Integrated Management Service Centric How Customers See Tangible Value How to Get Started Related Resources Appendix - Deep Dive to Key Components Key Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Technologies Explained DataCenter What s New in Windows Server 2008 R Enhanced Storage and Cluster Support Streamlined Process for Managing Host Upgrades Other VMM 2008 R2 Enhancements Cloud Computing Unified Management System Center Datacenter Management: Client/Desktop Management:

3 1. Introduction Companies are under more pressure than ever to reduce costs while supporting business agility. More and more businesses are turning toward virtualization as a means to lower costs, increase availability of their infrastructure, and give end users improved services levels. Microsoft Virtualization solutions provide you with the way to optimize your IT infrastructure by reducing costs, increasing availability, and improving agility responding to your fast changing business needs. Microsoft Virtualization provides an approach to pooling and sharing of IT resources so IT Services can meet the organizational demands moving organizations closer to Dynamic IT. Microsoft s comprehensive approach from the desktop and datacenter, to the cloud is unique to the industry by delivering solutions that address virtualization at the hardware, application and management levels. Microsoft s approach is not only one of the most comprehensive in the market today, but it is also one of the most economical. This combination brings strategic advantage and cost savings to an organization. This whitepaper: 1) Illustrates how Microsoft s Virtualization solutions can help organizations move towards Dynamic IT and help customers achieve the following benefits: Realize Better Business Value Increase Availability Improve Business Agility 2) Takes an in-depth look at Microsoft s unique approach to virtualization and how it offers businesses a choice when moving to a completely virtualized infrastructure from the desktop and datacenter, to the cloud. Microsoft Virtualization offers a comprehensive set of solutions through these four key components: Desktop Datacenter Management Cloud 3) Provides customers with step-by-step guidance on how to get started through comprehensive resources. 2. Virtualization Trends and Customer Needs Virtualization transforms how companies examine and deliver IT in their organization how IT is managed, what is purchased, how it is deployed, and how companies plan their IT strategy. Virtualization, along with integrated management, allows IT to treat the applications they provide and consume as services instead of as distinct servers and operating systems. In the datacenter, companies focus on how to best deliver these services to meet their customer demands and guarantees (either within their own business or externally). At the desktop, IT departments are concerned with providing the optimal experience for the end user in consuming the services they provide regardless of the user s location, what kind of connection they have, or what type of device is being used. With this service-centric view, IT will need the integrated management capabilities Microsoft provides, to simplify the operations and meet their Service Level Agreements. Server virtualization has gone main stream and has become a central tool to reduce hardware costs, improve server management, and reduce datacenter power consumption. Server virtualization has enabled datacenter professionals to automate many server tasks, such as the provisioning and configuration of the applications and the operating 3

4 environments they run upon. Many IT shops have also begun to focus on enhancing desktop flexibility by evaluating and deploying virtual desktop infrastructure. Alongside these trends, the emergence of cloud computing has become one of the hottest topics in IT. As IT departments strive to become more efficient, they need to provide their users and applications access to the resources they need when they need them. Microsoft provides the most practical and comprehensive solutions in the market today from the desktop and datacenter, to the cloud providing customers with a clear roadmap and vision on how they can move toward Dynamic IT. With Microsoft s Dynamic IT and cloud strategy, organizations can now move forward with the confidence that the existing investments in their datacenter can be leveraged in the future. 3. Microsoft Virtualization Enables Dynamic IT Microsoft s Dynamic IT Vision Dynamic IT is Microsoft s long-term strategy for providing critical technologies that enable IT and development organizations to become more strategic to their business. It is Microsoft s vision for what an agile business looks like a business where IT is able to meet the demands of a rapidly changing environment. The Dynamic IT strategy helps businesses enhance the capability and efficiency of their people, processes, and IT infrastructure. It helps customers to achieve continuous innovation with unified and virtualized, process-led and model-driven, user-focused, and serviceenabled IT infrastructure. Microsoft Virtualization Is a Key Enabler for Dynamic IT Microsoft Virtualization is a key component of Dynamic IT. It delivers an environment that helps organizations anticipate and respond to the ever changing business challenges and opportunities, and is a key enabler for making IT more dynamic and efficient. Microsoft Virtualization solutions help customers optimize IT structures to reduce costs, improve application availability, and enhance business agility enabling IT organizations to be more productive service providers for their companies. Virtualization is Not the End game Virtualization Fuels Cloud Computing Trends Virtualization is a crucial enabler for cloud computing (more specifically, for IaaS and PaaS). Given its importance and the economies that are fueling this trend, Microsoft helps make cloud computing a reality. The consolidation of virtual machine resources represents the next wave of change. Cloud computing is changing the software landscape by presenting new ways to develop, deliver, and deploy applications and IT services. This shift in thinking can help lead to a number of benefits, such as the ability to scale as needed where you no longer need to buy for peak, reduce upfront costs in implementing new services and applications, and be more responsive to changing market conditions. As a part of its Dynamic IT vision, Microsoft provides the broad cloud strategy. Microsoft also offers a new service line to enable private clouds and a new offering for hosting partners for enabling public clouds. Microsoft Cloud Computing the natural evolution of and foundation for our Dynamic IT vision is designed to help you create a service-oriented infrastructure by combining a set of products, technologies, and offerings with best practices and guidance, helping you along your journey from Private Cloud to Public Cloud. Microsoft continues to evolve its Dynamic IT vision by delivering choices across a broad range of cloud computing offerings. 4

5 4. How Microsoft Virtualization Changes the Game 4.1 Microsoft Integrated Virtualization: From the Desktop and Datacenter, to the Cloud Microsoft Virtualization delivers a choice of end-to-end comprehensive solutions that organizations can use to move forward with confidence as they increase their business flexibility and reduce IT costs. Microsoft differentiates virtualization into three categories which, combined together, provide an end-to-end suite of virtualization products and technologies all tied together by unique integrated management solutions. Microsoft virtualization provides a dynamic foundation for your datacenter infrastructure. It allows an organization to deliver dynamic resource allocations to services when needed, as well as reduce operating costs and improve service levels. For Client side, the Windows Optimized Desktop scenarios give your business the ability to choose the optimal desktop experience that is best suited to your user s needs. Employees can receive flexible access anytime, anywhere, through any device with more productivity, while lowering the costs needed to manage and maintain these desktops. Microsoft System Center gives you unparalleled integrated management functionality for your physical and virtual environments all the way through the application layer, and is the only solution that lets you manage Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines, through one console. Microsoft cloud technologies deliver the solutions that allow enterprises to move towards a private cloud within their existing datacenters and enable the journey to public cloud. With the Microsoft cloud strategy, you can now deploy cloud computing models with confidence. This new paradigm will help you move towards Dynamic IT. 5

6 4.2 Microsoft Virtualization Key Benefits Better Value In these current economic times, businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce costs and ensure the best return on investment possible. With Microsoft Virtualization, you can lower TCO by: Reducing power consumption and datacenter space Increasing hardware utilization Lowering upfront costs including licensing fees Simplifying application and desktop lifecycle management Lowering operational costs for both maintenance and training Leverage the skills already in place Utilize already purchased capabilities Fpweb.net saved $971,000 in datacenter costs with an integrated virtualization solution Swedish Medical Center saved more than $1 million in the first year alone on licensing and personnel-related tasks such as testing, deployment and associated helpdesk support Increased Availability Microsoft Virtualization gives businesses the opportunity to increase the availability of services, thereby increasing end user satisfaction. With Microsoft Virtualization, you can increase availability by: Improving service levels Minimizing disruption to services Enhancing desktop business continuity Providing access to applications regardless of location Reducing application and user data deployment time TUV Nord: In the event of a disaster, users can access their virtualized applications on-demand from other computers without major interruptions to their work Improved Business Agility Microsoft Virtualization helps your business become more flexible and adaptable. IT departments can provide the resources their organization needs when they need them, and improve business agility by: Integrating physical, virtual, and application management Accelerating responses to changing business needs Performing flexible desktop deployments Easily migrating to a new version of Windows Providing capacity on demand KIDC: By launching the Advanced Datacenter Virtualization solution, customers can create a dynamic infrastructure within their datacenters that can expand to meet demand 6

7 4.2 Top 5 Reasons to Choose Microsoft Virtualization # 1 Less Complexity with Unified Physical, Virtual, and Application Management The more you virtualize the more complex your environment can become, and the more essential a comprehensive management system is to enabling a cost-effective, dynamic infrastructure. Microsoft System Center is a comprehensive solution that lets you easily manage you applications, physical machines, and provide both host and in-guest management of virtual machines all through one integrated suite of tools. The combination of Hyper-V and System Center delivers critical insights into the virtual infrastructure at the application and service level, and tools to leverage that knowledge. Microsoft can manage your existing non-microsoft virtual machines, as well as your Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines, through the same integrated system. # 2 Better Value With the Same Amount of Investment Microsoft Virtualization solutions are proven to save more money and cost less (often up to one-sixth less) than competitive products. These services help you dramatically lower TCO and realize the greatest ROI by streamlining many datacenter and desktop management tasks, and allowing you to take advantage of your existing Windows expertise. With Microsoft Virtualization built into the Windows environment, you don t need to support an extra layer or pay a virtualization tax. # 3 Enhanced Agility and Competitiveness Cost savings alone would not be reason enough to make the switch if Microsoft Virtualization did not provide all the customer-required capabilities and deliver substantial business advantages. For virtualization to significantly impact your business, it must span your enterprise. With the Microsoft System Center suite of integrated solutions, there is no added complexity when it comes to end-to-end management. # 4 Proven Built-in Virtualization Microsoft built virtualization directly into the operating system with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and into the 7

8 management platform with Microsoft System Center. With Microsoft, your virtualized infrastructure consists of the three computing layers you already have: hardware, operating system, and applications. Virtualization is simply a role within Windows. When you use Microsoft Virtualization solutions, your IT team already has the knowledge and tools needed to administer a virtualized environment. You do not need to manage an extra layer and pay a virtualization tax to get the functionality you require. # 5 Comprehensive Solutions Fueling Cloud Computing and Dynamic IT Because Microsoft is a platform company, not a niche vendor, we have the broadest view of a virtualized infrastructure and the most extensive portfolio of proven virtualization solutions, including Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, Windows Virtual PC, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Terminal Services, Microsoft Application Virtualization, and the Microsoft System Center family the heart of the whole solution. We address all aspects of the infrastructure servers, applications and desktops and enable you to easily manage whole virtualization stacks. With the breadth of Microsoft solutions from the desktop to datacenter, you can create the virtualized environment that best suits your business. 5. What Key Components Make Microsoft Virtualization Unique? 5.1 Datacenter Dynamic Foundation IT Organizations must provide efficient use of IT resources and provide the Services their business units require. Microsoft s datacenter virtualization solutions provide a fluid pool of resources managed through the virtualization platform that can dynamically reallocate services and applications between servers, automatically. The benefit is increased server utilization, reduced operating costs, and improved service levels. More than Saving Costs and Increasing Utilization With Microsoft Datacenter Virtualization a company can decrease costs and increase utilization through server consolidation, allowing IT to take many physical servers that are not efficiently using their resources and consolidate them down to a much smaller pool of physical servers which now utilize the infrastructure very efficiently. Once these virtualized environments are stored on a shared storage device, like a Fibrechannel or iscsi SAN, companies can gain the agility of allowing the resources to dynamically shift between the physical infrastructures as the resource needs change. Applications Get the Resources They Need When They Need Them When you couple the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V platform s dynamic capabilities together with the health and performance monitoring capabilities of System Center, you can now reallocate resources automatically on the fly. 8

9 Hyper-V utilizes a technique called Live Migration to move a workload from one physical server to another with no interruption of service. System Center will monitor the applications through PRO (or Performance Resource Optimizations) enabled Management Packs. These Microsoft or Partner created PRO Management Packs can monitor specific elements of the infrastructure whether it is the physical hardware, the virtualization layer, or the applications and services. As the health of the monitored element changes, the PRO enabled management pack will take action on the Virtualization Layer or the infrastructure to resolve the issue. This enables applications to get the resources they need when they need them and can redistribute resources evenly. Transparent Monitoring Throughout the Entire Virtualization Stack The integrated management capabilities of Microsoft System Center helps lower the costs of delivering datacenter services through integrated, end-to-end management of physical and virtual environments. Customers are able to standardize their datacenter management environment for significantly lower costs than competitive solutions while implementing best practices that can deliver thousands of dollars of operational savings each year. This is delivered through simplified management of the datacenter via an integrated set of tools that automate server management and optimize the use of server and datacenter resources. For example, Pro Tips provides the capability to monitor the entire virtualization stack not only monitoring the virtual layer, but also the physical and application layers inside. System Center with PRO Tips provides the capability to react according to triggers in the virtualized environment like resource usage, response latency, or storage capacity. When PRO Tips are enacted, System Center Virtual Machine Manager will take action on the virtualized environment. Virtual Machine Manger may move a VM to another box, or deploy a new virtual environment, or perhaps dynamically expand a LUN. These capabilities help to dynamically redistribute resources evenly, or correct current hardware conditions, and make decisions about how the resources should be leveraged. Site Recovery Working together with partners, Microsoft provides unique site recovery solutions. Organizations can utilize virtualization to decrease the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for a Site Recovery Plan. With a virtualization implementation being low in cost, Organizations can provide site recovery capabilities to more applications and services than they could before. By utilizing multi-site clustering, Microsoft site recovery solutions can support the capabilities that allow the desired VMs to move over to another site in case of a site failure. When the site failure has been resolved you can simply resynchronize the data back to the original site and then fail the workloads back to the primary site through either long distance live migration, or failing back the cluster node, simplifying the failback process. 9

10 5.2 Desktop Flexible Access Microsoft desktop virtualization encompasses a broad set of solutions that empower companies to address their unique business, IT, and end user challenges while preserving their existing IT infrastructure investments. With offerings to virtualize the application, data, and Windows operating system (OS) layers, companies can choose the technologies that allow them to best optimize and manage their desktop infrastructure. Customers new to desktop virtualization may begin by virtualizing applications and user and data settings to help immediately reduce operational costs and standardize the desktop environment. Upon laying that foundation, they can then evaluate the desktop virtualization technologies at the OS layer. These solutions are particularly valuable for increasing business flexibility by introducing new deployment methods. Microsoft Optimized Desktop Virtualization Benefits Microsoft provides customized optimized desktop scenarios depending on different business requirements for balancing user flexibility and centralized control. You can reduce TCO by implementing application and user state virtualization. If you are pursuing agility then remote desktop services and virtual desktop infrastructure are the right solutions for you. But keep in mind that desktop virtualization does not solve all your desktop issues and must be coupled with a strong management strategy. Microsoft s client virtualization solutions completely align with your business requirements to: Reduce desktop TCO with Application Virtualization Increase Business Agility with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Streamline IT Management with System Center and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) The Windows Optimized Desktop Scenarios give your business the ability to choose what is best for your particular user needs. Through virtualization, employees can access their applications and data in a way that is optimized for the specific device they are connecting through. They can now receive anytime, anywhere, through any device access allowing them to be more productive while lowering the cost to manage and maintain these desktops. On the IT side, virtualization accelerates deployment of new capabilities (like application or OS upgrades). It also helps reduce application testing and compatibility issues and simplifies disaster recovery and compliance. Deliver Essential Capabilities Reduce Total Cost of Ownership Increase Business Agility/Continuity Enable Anywhere Access Improve Security and Compliance Allow Anywhere Access for Users Provides a Comprehensive set of Solutions from Datacenter to Desktop 10

11 Leverage the Platform You Own Choice of solutions for your business needs o Leveraging the software you already own, you can create business solutions for the challenges you face o With a Windows software agreement you may already own the ability to upgrade to Windows 7 and all the virtualization benefits it provides o If you own Windows Server 2008, you own Virtualization Preserve your existing investment o You have already made an investment in your infrastructure. With the tools you already own, you can begin to take advantage of Microsoft Virtualization, and begin to see the benefits Virtualization provides. Integrated Management Whether on the desktop to provide the optimal experience for accessing your services, the datacenter to provide the services to your organization, or into the cloud which provides an elastic scalable infrastructure, Microsoft s integrated management solutions give you visibility into your environment while increasing your capability to respond to ever changing business requirements. System Center delivers the integrated management tools necessary for managing physical and virtual environments through a single console. o o o Provides the ability to deliver users targeted physical and virtual applications, software updates, and other configuration management services Features integrated incident awareness, response, problem tracking, helpdesk support, remediation, recovery, and reporting across physical and virtual PCs and applications Offers centralized policy-based management Windows Optimized Desktop Virtualization Scenarios 11

12 Data & User Settings Enable users to access their data from anywhere, at any time Applications Deliver applications on demand to users. Operation Systems Deploy a single image across physical and virtual environments Microsoft User State Virtualization ( For All Desktops ) o Let s users access their data and settings from anywhere, at any time o Provides easier recovery from PC failure and theft o Simplifies IT management of user data and settings Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) or RemoteApp (For All Desktops) o Helps deliver immediate cost savings o Provides maximum flexibility for users by making applications available from anywhere, at any time o While both App-V and RemoteApp host applications remotely, applications delivered with RemoteApp appear to be running side-by-side with local applications Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) (For Connected Desktops Where Personalization is Important) o Gives users anywhere access to their personalized Windows-based desktops, hosted in the datacenter o Increases security and data protection, while also improving business agility and continuity o Can be particularly effective for providing a managed desktop to unmanaged devices Centralizing desktop management for remote locations Task worker scenarios Desktops that demand high levels of security and compliance Session Virtualization* with Remote Desktop Services (For Connected Desktops Where Personalization is Not Important) o Delivers session-based desktops or applications in high-density situations o Works for low complexity or task worker scenarios o Requires less hardware and server management than VDI Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) ( For Connected Desktops with App-OS Compatibility Issues ) o Enables companies to deploy Windows 7-based desktops without having to worry about application compatibility o Runs applications locally in a Windows XP-based Virtual PC o Provides companies with the ability to run two operating systems on one device, adding virtual image delivery, policy-based provisioning, and centralized management * Formally known as Terminal Services 12

13 5.3 Cloud Elastic Infrastructure As an organization s needs change, or if an organization needs elastic capacity rapidly, they can turn to Cloud technologies to get those resources. Cloud Services provide an on-demand infrastructure that can offer IT as a service or capacity on demand according to business requirements. Cloud computing means flexibility and agility through highly automated infrastructure, applications, management, and security. Microsoft cloud computing is never an all-or-nothing decision you can deploy deeply integrated solutions on-premises, in the cloud, or in combination. And cloud computing can help you better manage your IT costs to adapt to shrinking budgets, at the same time reducing environmental impact and creating more time for IT staff to focus on critical projects. This offering will provide customers with architecture and deployment guidance and best practices for enabling the foundation for private clouds, and help customers move along the path to create agile and dynamic IT environments. Microsoft Cloud Continuum Microsoft provides products, technologies, and offerings around two types of clouds each based on the concept of being highly virtualized, managed in a consistent manner, with dynamic and elastic scalability, and focused on service delivery. Private Cloud: An internal service-oriented environment optimized for performance and cost, and deployed within a customer s datacenter. It is powered by packaged server products, including Windows Server and System Center products, and provides compatibility with existing applications. Public Cloud: Provided by service providers, public cloud offers customers the ability to deploy and consume services. In this category, Azure is a highly scalable services platform providing pay as-you-go flexibility delivered from Microsoft datacenters. 13

14 Microsoft s Cloud Computing Offerings Microsoft Cloud Computing offers: A flexible and familiar infrastructure with a consistent Windows-based platform across clouds, reducing your development and deployment. Integrated resource fabrics that enable the ability to federate services across clouds, ensuring you have the capacity and resources you need to deliver your business requirements. The agility to develop applications and services once, and then deploy them in and across any cloud environment, allowing you to rapidly respond to new requirements and business change. By providing tools that enable customers to manage their fabric and deliver services, Microsoft is providing customers the foundation for cloud computing. Journey to the Cloud Today customers can begin their journey to the private cloud by deploying the Microsoft products and technologies they know and trust. The flexible and familiar platform and tools you use today will be the foundation for your private cloud infrastructure. As we enable our customers on this path, Microsoft will deliver the technologies that allow enterprises to build a private cloud within their existing datacenters based on enhancements to Windows Server and System Center. Microsoft is enabling customers to build the foundation for a private cloud infrastructure using Windows Server and System Center products with the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit. Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit The Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit (DDTK) is a free, partner-extensible toolkit that will enable datacenters to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage resources to enable IT as a service. Whether you are an enterprise customer, a systems integrator, or an independent software vendor, the toolkit will help you create agile, virtualized IT infrastructures. This turnkey solution provides: 14

15 Customer/business unit on-boarding Automation and guidance Dynamic provisioning engine Self-service portal Batch creation of VM s The Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit for Hosting Providers (DDTK-H) helps hosters deliver their services built on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center. The toolkit contains guidance to help you establish appropriate service level agreements (SLAs) and create portals that your customers can use to directly provision, manage, and monitor their infrastructure. The DDTH-H enables hosters to build an ongoing relationship with customers while you scale business with these resources: Step-by-step instructions and technical best practices to provision and manage a reliable, secure, and scalable datacenter Customizable marketing material you can use to help your customers take advantage of these new solutions Sample code and demos to use in your deployment 5.4 Integrated Management Service Centric Virtualization is important, but without a comprehensive management solution, an IT organization will not be able to progress up to and attain Dynamic IT. Microsoft provides a comprehensive management solution that not only manages both physical and virtual resources, but also has the ability to monitor and manage the application layer. Microsoft Virtualization technologies enable your business to optimize its assets, centrally managing both your physical and virtual resources across multiple hypervisors down to the application level. Virtual machines are not simply objects to manipulate, but actual computers with real workloads. Managing them, just like managing physical systems, is imperative. By using Microsoft System Center a comprehensive set of integrated management tools you can keep complexity at a minimum and streamline operations. A common management environment reduces training, ensures uniform policy application, and simplifies maintenance by leveraging your existing software, personnel, and most importantly, your existing IT management process. Microsoft System Center offers management solutions for both the dynamic datacenter and dynamic desktop. Datacenter Management Integrated management of physical and virtual, and applications Microsoft System Center Solutions for datacenter management enable datacenter managers to optimize resources, improve the visibility of IT assets and issues, and meet service levels, all while decreasing costs. Today s datacenters require more processing power to meet the data and computing needs of the enterprise, while at the same time facing resource constraints. Only Microsoft provides both host and in-guest management of all virtual machines. The combination of Hyper-V and System Center delivers critical insights into the virtual infrastructure at the application and service levels, and tools to leverage that knowledge. One of the features that enable this is Performance Resource Optimization (PRO) in Virtual Machine Manager. It allows optimization at both the host and application levels. This is critical because managing virtual machines from an application perspective is needed to ensure a reliable, high-performing environment. For years, Microsoft has invested in inventory, deployment, and monitoring management infrastructure tools. Service Manager integrates and orchestrates the people process, knowledge, and technology across the Microsoft platform. Client/Desktop Management - Deliver services with compliance and lower costs 15

16 Microsoft System Center desktop solutions enable IT to empower users by streamlining the connection of any authorized user to any application, regardless of their location or connectivity. These solutions allow users to run their applications by managing the delivery of locally installed traditional, virtualized, and streamed applications, as well as remote-execution terminal services and virtual desktop infrastructures, through a unified system that provides both secure access and the consistent, optimized performance users expect. 6. How Customers See Tangible Value Microsoft Virtualization offers significant advantages and having seen this, many customers are moving from other virtualization providers to Microsoft. Following is a sampling of customers that have switched to Microsoft Virtualization and have taken advantage of the substantial cost savings. Plus, with extensive, integrated management of heterogeneous environments, customers can run their infrastructure much more efficiently and effectively. Customer Industry Location In Their Own Words Avanade Software United States Hyper-V was significantly more cost effective than those VMware licenses we had used for our test and development environment. Hyper-V also had more than enough performance, scalability, and reliability for our needs. Fpweb.net Hosting United States Virtualization was intended to reduce costs in the datacenter, so we could pass on the savings to customers in the form of competitive pricing. With VMware, we would face an upfront licensing cost of $100,800, adding to our operational expenses and putting pressure on our pricing. By comparison, when we licensed Windows Server, Hyper-V was included for free. Mamut Software Norway We will be able to support our entire virtual landscape through Microsoft, which already supports the rest of our datacenter. Hyper-V fits better into our Microsoft and simplifies our IT strategy 16

17 PoundHost Hosting United Kingdom by enabling us to work with as few vendors as possible. We ve doubled virtual-machine sales with our Hyper-V offering, plus operating costs are lower because Hyper-V is so much less expensive than VMware. Our profitability has increased by 55 percent. University of Miami Education United States When we compared Microsoft and VMware from cost, integration, and companion product perspectives, it was clear that Microsoft delivered a much better value than VMware. Workplace Safety and Insurance Health Insurance Canada Using Hyper-V, we ll get better results and avoid having to spend $300,000 in licensing. 7. How to Get Started If you want to understand how Microsoft virtualization can help your organization, just follow these four easy steps: Related Resources For more information on Microsoft Virtualization solutions and products you can visit the following resources: Microsoft Virtualization Solutions Product Resources: Windows Server 2008 R2 17

18 Microsoft System Center Virtualization Assessment and Planning: ROI Calculator Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Tool: 8. Appendix - Deep Dive to Key Components 8.1 Key Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Technologies Explained Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Enterprise IT infrastructures are increasingly complex to manage. The MDOP is a dynamic desktop solution that is available as a subscription for Software Assurance customers. The solution suite enhances application deployment and compatibility, increases IT responsiveness and end user uptime, and helps reduce TCO of your desktop software and IT management. MDOP employs six innovative technologies to increase desktop manageability, reduce TCO, and improve overall infrastructure satisfaction: 1. Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) turns applications into centrally managed services that are never installed, never conflict, and are streamed on-demand to end users. 2. Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) provides deployment and management of virtual PC images to enable key enterprise scenarios, primarily resolving application compatibility with a new version of Windows. 3. Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) enhances the governance and control over Group Policy through robust change management, versioning, and role-based administration. 4. Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) reduces downtime by accelerating troubleshooting, repair, and data recovery of unbootable Windows-based desktops. 5. Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) provides insights into application and operating system failures, allowing helpdesk to be more proactive in managing PC problems, without installing an agent to the endpoint. 18

19 Application Virtualization (App-V) Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) transforms applications into centrally-managed virtual services that are never installed and don t conflict with other applications App-V allows applications to be streamed on-demand over the Internet or via the corporate network to desktops, terminal servers, and laptops. It automates and simplifies the application management lifecycle by significantly reducing regression and application interoperability testing. It can accelerate operating systems and application deployments by reducing the image footprint and reduces the end user impacts associated with application upgrades/patching and terminations. No reboots required, no waiting for applications to install, and no need to uninstall when retiring an application. It also enables controlled application use when users are completely disconnected Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) MED-V is a core component of the MDOP for Software Assurance. It enables the deployment and management of Microsoft Virtual PC Windows desktops to address key enterprise scenarios and helps enterprises upgrade to the latest version of Windows, even when some applications are not functional or supported. MED-V builds on top of virtual PC to run two operating systems on one device, adding virtual image delivery, policybased provisioning, and centralized management. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) RDS makes it possible to run an application, or an entire desktop, in one location but have it be controlled in another. With RDS, it is possible to install and manage session-based desktops and applications, or virtual-machine based desktops on centralized servers in the datacenter; screen images are delivered to the users and the users' client machines, in turn, send keystrokes and mouse movements back to the server. When using Remote Desktop Services, administrators can present users with an entire desktop environment, or with their individual applications and data which they require to complete their task. From a user perspective, these applications are integrated seamlessly looking, feeling, and behaving like local applications. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) VDI is one of the many Optimized Desktop scenarios offered by Microsoft to help organizations optimize their IT infrastructure. It is a comprehensive set of Microsoft and partner technologies, enabling centralization of desktops, applications and data. VDI from Microsoft provides Enterprise IT with integrated management of physical, virtual and session based desktops, centralization of user data, and improved application delivery. End users benefit from a rich, remote experience, highly secure and flexible access to their information, and increased business continuity. Virtual desktop infrastructure benefits non-mobile workers in enterprises that have sophisticated and mature IT departments. It is best suited for contract and offshore workers, users who need access to corporate desktops and applications, and for users that work from home occasionally and whose primary desktop is covered by a corporate license. Key benefits of VDI include: Improved flexibility, enhancing work scenarios such as work from home and hot-desking Improved business continuity through data centralization Integrated management of physical, virtual, and session-based desktops 8.2 DataCenter What s New in Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations of all sizes increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business 19

20 needs. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, scalability enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology infrastructure. From a virtualization perspective Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces a new version of Hyper-V, which offers organization increased operating efficiencies allowing organization to dramatically reduce operation effort and power consumption. Core areas of improvement as follows: Better Flexibility Live Migration Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 includes the much-anticipated live migration feature, which allows you to move a virtual machine between two virtualization host servers without any interruption of service. Hyper-V live migration is integrated with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. With it you can move running VMs from one Hyper-V physical host to another without any disruption of service or perceived downtime. Moving running VMs without downtime using Hyper-V live migration: Provides better agility. Datacenters with multiple Hyper-V physical hosts can move running VMs to the best physical computer for performance, scaling, or optimal consolidation without affecting users. Reduces costs and increases productivity. Datacenters with multiple Hyper-V physical hosts can service those systems in a controlled fashion, scheduling maintenance during regular business hours. Live migration makes it possible to keep VMs online, even during maintenance, increasing productivity for users and server administrators. Datacenters can also reduce power consumption by dynamically increasing consolidation ratios and powering off un-used physical hosts during lower demand times. Cluster Shared Volumes With Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V uses Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) storage to simplify and enhance shared storage usage. CSV enables multiple Windows Servers to access SAN storage using a single consistent namespace for all volumes on all hosts. Multiple hosts can access the same Logical Unit Number (LUN) on SAN storage. CSV enables faster live migration and easier storage management for Hyper-V when used in a cluster configuration. Cluster Shared Volumes are available as part of the Windows Failover Clustering feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. Quick Storage Migration Windows Hyper-V R2 Quick storage migration allows the transfer a VM s storage from one location to another while the VM remains online during most of the storage migration process. Hot Add/Remove of Storage Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V supports hot plug-in and hot removal of storage. By supporting the addition or removal of Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) files and pass-through disks while a VM is running, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V makes it possible to reconfigure VMs quickly to meet changing workload requirements. This feature allows the addition and removal of both VHD files and pass-through disks to existing SCSI controllers for VMs. Processor Compatibility Mode Hyper-V R2 also includes a new processor compatibility feature. Processor compatibility allows you to move a virtual machine up and down multiple processor generations from the same vendor. When a VM is started with processor compatibility mode enabled, Hyper-V normalizes the processor feature set and only exposes guest visible processor features that are available on all Hyper-V enabled processors of the same processor architecture, i.e., AMD or Intel. This allows the VM to be migrated to any hardware platform of the same processor architecture. Processor features are "hidden" by the hypervisor by intercepting a VM's CPUID instruction and clearing the returned bits corresponding to the hidden features. 20

21 Boot from VHD In Windows Server 2008 R2, you can deploy virtual hard disk (.vhd) images of Windows Server 2008 R2 to a physical (not virtual) computer using Windows Deployment Services. In general, you deploy.vhd images in the same way that you deploy.wim images. However, using WDSUTIL at the command line is the only supported method of adding and configuring the images. In addition, the deployment must be part of an automated installation. Improved Performance Improved Memory Management Hardware Improvements allows for up to 256 logical processors, which takes advantage of AMD and Intel Page Tables on their CPU's, allowing for much improved memory management. TCP Offload Support (VM Chimney) VM Chimney allows a VM to dump its network processing load onto the NIC of the host computer. This works the same as in a physical TCP offload scenario; Hyper-V now simply extends this functionality into the virtual world. This benefits both CPU and overall network throughput performance, and it is fully supported by Live Migration. VM Chimney is disabled by default in Windows Server 2008 R2, primarily for short-term hardware compatibility reasons. But combined with compatible hardware, currently including vendors like Intel, VM Chimney significantly reduces the host server s CPU burden when dealing with VM network traffic. This translates into better host system performance and a simultaneous boost to VM network throughput. Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) Support Network adapters that support the VMQ feature are able to create a unique network queue for each virtual network adapter and then connect that queue directly to the virtual machine s memory. This connection routes packets directly from the hypervisor to the virtual machine, bypassing much of the processing in the virtualization stack. Improved Networking The new Hyper-V leverages several new networking technologies contained in Windows Server 2008 R2 to improve overall VM networking performance. Two key examples are the new VM Chimney (also called TCP Offload) and the use of Jumbo Frames. Greater Scalability At 64 logical processor support Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 now supports up to 64 logical processors in the host processor pool. This is a significant upgrade from previous versions and allows not only greater VM density per host, but also gives IT administrators more flexibility in assigning CPU resources to VMs. Enhance Green IT with Core Parking Windows Server 2008 R2 reduces processor power consumption in server computers with multicore processors by using a feature known as Core Parking. The Core Parking feature allows Windows Server 2008 R2 to consolidate processing onto the fewest number of possible processor cores, and suspends inactive processor cores. Why Use System Center Server Management Suite Datacenter (SMSD)? SMSD provides a cost effective way to comprehensively manage highly virtualized environments. System Center SMSD is licensed per processor and provides rights to manage unlimited operating system environments per device. A minimum of two processors must be licensed for each server device covered with System Center SMSD. System Center SMSD is recommended for licensing highly virtualized environments as it provides a comprehensive end-to-end management 21

22 solution that includes the Enterprise Server management licenses for Operations Manager 2007 R2, Configuration Manager 2007 R2, Data Protection Manager 2007, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, the Management Server license for Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, and rights to manage an unlimited number of operating system environments. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (VMM 2008) VMM 2008 is a comprehensive management solution for managing virtualized infrastructure running on Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, and VMware ESX through Virtual Center. VMM 2008 R2, the next version of VMM, which leverages new platform enhancements and extends the feature set of VMM Highlighted below are the most important new and significantly enhanced features in the VMM 2008 R2: Support for New Features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Live Migration: Seen through the VMM console, Live Migration enables administrators to move a virtual machine between clustered hosts in a way that is completely transparent to users connected to the virtual machine. This allows administrators greater flexibility in responding to planned downtime and provides higher machine availability. The basic requirements for Live Migration are that all hosts must be part of a Windows Server 2008 R2 failover cluster and host processors must be from the same manufacturer. Additionally all hosts in the cluster must have access to shared storage. No changes are required to existing virtual machines, network, or storage devices in moving from Quick Migration to Live Migration other than upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2. Hot Addition/Removal of Storage: Allows the addition and removal of storage to virtualized infrastructure without interruption. Additionally, "live management of virtual hard disk (VHDs) or iscsi pass through disks, allows administrators to take advantage of additional backup scenarios and readily use mission critical and storage-intensive applications. New Optimized Networking Technologies: VMM 2008 R2 supports two new networking technologies Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and TCP Chimney providing increased network performance while creating less of a CPU burden. NICs that support VMQ, create a unique virtual network queue for each virtual machine on a host that can pass network packets directly from the hypervisor to the virtual machine. This increases throughput as it bypasses much of the processing normally required by the virtualization stack. With TCP Chimney, TCP/IP traffic can be offloaded to a physical NIC on the host computer reducing CPU load and improving network performance. Enhanced Storage and Cluster Support Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV): Provides a single, consistent storage space that allows hosts in a cluster to concurrently access virtual machine files on a single shared logical unit number (LUN). CSV eliminates the previous one virtual machine per LUN restriction and coordinates the use of storage with much greater efficiency and higher performance. CSV enables the Live Migration of virtual machines without impacting other virtual machines sharing the same LUN. Enabling CSV on failover clusters is straightforward; many storage configuration complexities prior to CSV have now been eliminated. SAN Migration into and out of Clustered Hosts: This allows virtual machines to migrate into and out of clusters using a SAN transfer, which saves the time required for copying the virtual machine file over the network. Expanded Support for iscsi SANs: Previously, only one LUN could be bound to a single iscsi target whereas now with support now built into VMM 2008 R2 multiple LUNS can be mapped to a single iscsi target. This provides broader industry support for iscsi SANs allowing customers more flexibility in choosing storage providers and iscsi SAN options. Storage Migration: Quick Storage Migration enables migration of a VM s storage both within the same host and across hosts while the VM is running with a minimum of downtime, typically less than 2 minutes. VMM 2008 R2 also supports 22