Cisco at Gartner Data Center Conference :Unleashing the Benefits of Virtualization

Difficult for Cisco not to be a key player in the Gartner 28th Annual Data Center Conference, as Gartner describes the mission of this event in the following terms  “See how to :   
-Reduce IT costs while improving the quality of IT services.
- Maximize productivity from existing applications systems and services
 -Align the data center culture with the business at large.
Let our analysts put you in the know with information-rich sessions on cloud computing, next-stage virtualization, vendor consolidation, cost-optimization best practices and much more. Your take-away: fresh insight on the key technology and market developments that drive today’s real-world solutions.”

Today at Gartner Data Center conference, Cisco invites several customers to talk about the benefit of virtualization and share their experience of deploying these technologies (including Unified Computing Systems , Nexus 1000V and VN link..)  during a special panel.

Over the past two years, Cisco has been incredibility busy in providing new data center solutions (Unified Fabric, Unified Computing , Service Oriented SAN)  to support the virtualization movement,  and to simplify, unify the data centers and amplify their role.   
The success of Unified Computing is now pretty well known. Cisco successful participation to VMworld09 (largest UCS deployment ), Oracle  certification , the Alliance with EMC and VMware, the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount servers , and the first customer success stories, are some of the proof points of the increasing  interest from the market.

 In this video, Ed Chapman, Cisco VP product Management at the Server Access and Virtualization BU, explains  the great level of acceptance of the unified fabric portfolio. Customers such as Salem Hospital, University of Arizona,  Coca-Cola Bottling company, NetApp, or St Joseph health System share  their satisfaction reporting significant CAPEX and OPEX  reductions, based on the deployment of the Cisco Nexus family (Nexus 7000, Nexus 5000, Nexus 2000 and Nexus 1000V)

The  Nexus data center switching family , the Unified Computing Systems are presented on the Cisco booth at Gartner, as well as the Application Networking Services  portfolio, the Cisco’s Services Oriented SAN, Cloud Computing , Cisco’s services and the Intelligent Automation Platform  from Tidal Software, which recently joined Cisco.

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December 2, 2009 | TechMan | Tags: , , | No Comments »

The Planet Extends High-Performance SAN to Dedicated Hosting Customers

(The Hosting News) – HOUSTON – The Planet, a global leader in IT hosting, today announced the availability of the Dell PowerVault MD3000i, a high-performance storage area network (SAN) disk array. Ideal for multi-server environments such as virtual and private racks, the MD3000i offers a cost-effective and scalable storage solution.

The MD3000i uses iSCSI Ethernet technology to enable shared storage across multiple servers, eliminating the need to build out a costly fiber channel infrastructure. Up to 16 servers can share the MD3000i, which has 15 internal drive slots for a total storage capacity up to 15 terabytes (TB). In the event more capacity is required, companies can add up to two MD1000 storage arrays to the MD3000i for an additional 45TB.
“One of the most critical business challenges customers face today is data storage, and all too often it’s also one of the most costly,” said Rob Walters, director of product management for The Planet. “The MD3000i lowers the barrier to entry for high-performance, consolidated storage, and also provides a clear path for expansion for companies that expect to see their storage requirements grow.”

About the Dell PowerVault MD3000i
The iSCSI SAN array provides a scalable and low-cost storage solution, which continually protects daily operations and enables an easy path for expansion:
Cost-effective: The MD3000i, The Planet’s lowest-priced SAN, can be shared by as many as 16 servers, which eliminates the high cost of buying individual storage devices for each server.

Scalable: In addition to its 15 internal drive slots, customers can add up to two 15-drive MD1000 disk arrays to the MD3000i, for up to 45TB of storage.

Capable: With its large capacity and high availability, the MD3000i is ideal for businesses running performance-intensive applications, databases, and file or archive storage.

For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.theplanet.com/storage-area-network/.
Through Dec. 31, the company is offering a promotion on the MD3000i and MD1000. Customers will receive either the SAN or DAS enclosure free with purchase of 15 1TB or 300GB hard drives, a savings up to $650 per month. For details, visit http://www.theplanet.com/Direct-Attached-Storage-Offer/.

About The Planet
The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hostingâ„¢ and data center colocation, all backed by 24×7×365 support. For additional information, visit http://www.theplanet.com.

The Planet Extends High-Performance SAN to Dedicated Hosting Customers is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

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December 1, 2009 | TechMan | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »

SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby to Open Parallels Summit 2010 with Keynote Address

(The Hosting News) – Worldwide cloud-enablement leader Parallels, today announced that Melanie Posey, Research Director, Hosting and Telecom Markets at IDC will deliver the opening keynote address at Parallels Summit 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida on 22-24 February. Ms. Posey will introduce the theme of the event – ‘Profit from the Cloud’ – with a presentation on Public Clouds delivered on the morning of February 23rd, 2010.

“With so much emphasis on the cloud model and its implications for all telcos, hosters, VARs, managed service providers and ISVs, Parallels Summit 2010 will provide the perfect forum for tracking global trends, leveraging them in local markets and meeting some of the most significant companies in the industry,” said Melanie Posey, Research Director, Telecom Markets at IDC.

Also joining the speaker line-up is Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer, who plans to specifically address questions asked by those in the industry while also providing some insight into creating and building a high growth hosting company. Parallels Summit attendees can submit questions for Mr. Crosby at Summit_Questions@parallels.com. “The Parallels Summit is one of the most important events that we attend. It has the most qualified delegates in the hosting industry and is often the starting point for many of our long lasting relationships,” he said. “I’m looking forward to a very interactive session and urge people to send their questions in early.”

Other confirmed speakers for the event include Warren Adelman, President and Chief Operating Officer at GoDaddy.com and Antonio Piraino, Senior Analyst, Managed Hosting & Cloud Infrastructure Services, Tier 1 Research. Serguei Beloussov, Chairman and CEO at Parallels and Jack Zubarev, President, Service Provider Worldwide at Parallels will feature prominently throughout the Summit.

Platinum sponsors for this exclusive event include Microsoft and Verisign while gold sponsors are Intel and Unison and Silver sponsors are AMD, InterNex, tucows and e.pages. For more information on becoming a sponsor for the fifth annual Parallels Summit, please contact sponsors@parallels.com.

Parallels Summit 2010 will be held at Fontainebleau Miami Beach from 22-24 February, 2010. Registration is free for Parallels partners, customers, invited guests and other industry professionals. This global conference will provide a blueprint of how delegates can utilize Parallels technology to enable new Cloud Services; develop strategies to improve and extend the value of their services to the market; and develop new up-sell and cross-sell strategies that drive more revenue.

Visit the Parallels Summit conference website for registration and more details at: www.parallels.com/summit. For all other questions, please contact: summit@parallels.com.
About Parallels — Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby to Open Parallels Summit 2010 with Keynote Address is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.



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November 30, 2009 | TechMan | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Rackspace Expands App Offering with Launch of Cloud Drive

(The Hosting News) – Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the world’s leader in hosting and cloud computing, today announced a set of new product offerings that help businesses move their IT applications into the cloud. The new offerings from Rackspace include Rackspace Cloud Drive, Rackspace Server Backup, and the upcoming release of Hosted Microsoft SharePoint (expected to be released in December 2009). These new products help customers to spend less time maintaining basic IT systems, such as file servers and data backup software, and instead focus on their core competencies that drive revenue and add business value. By putting these apps in the cloud, Rackspace is able to provide businesses with its award winning Fanatical Support ® and a compelling value proposition.

“Most every business needs to send emails, share files, and backup data. But these systems are costly and complex to manage in-house,” said Pat Matthews, general manager, Rackspace Email & Apps. “The cloud presents a great opportunity for businesses to save money and work smarter. We believe that we are helping our customers gain competitive advantage by putting these apps in the cloud.”

Building on the momentum of its cloud-based email offerings, which include over 1.5 million paid-subscribers, Rackspace is now expanding into collaboration and backup applications that will help customers put more of their foundational IT software in the cloud. The new products mark a critical step toward more aggressively competing in the software-as-a-service market, enabling customers to achieve a server-less IT environment.

“This announcement is an important one for our business, as it highlights both the success of our existing email solutions and our expansion into additional business applications that can bring substantial cost savings to our customers and reduce complexity in their IT environments,” said Lew Moorman, president of cloud division, Rackspace Hosting. “More and more businesses are moving their critical applications to the cloud, and we can help them to achieve that goal.”

PRODUCT DETAILS:

Rackspace Cloud Drive is a cloud-based, online file storage application that allows individuals and teams to store, share, and backup files. With Rackspace Cloud Drive, customers can:

• Store and share files between employees.
• Access and manage data from inside and outside the office, without any additional hardware.
• Synchronize desktop folders with a cloud-based network drive across one or more computers.
• Backup data to the Rackspace Cloud and restore data in the event of a hardware failure.
• Protect data with AES-256 encryption using a key controlled by the customer.

Rackspace Server Backup is a cloud-based, online server backup application designed to protect your file server data. With Rackspace Server Backup, customers can:

• Backup server data to Rackspace Cloud Files for peace of mind.
• Manage data remotely using any Mac, Windows, or Linux PC.
• Protect server data with AES-256 encryption using a key controlled by the customer.

Rackspace Cloud Drive and Rackspace Server Backup are powered by technology from Jungle Disk, LLC, a Rackspace subsidiary acquired in 2008. For more information, product availability, and product pricing, visit http://www.rackspace.com/apps

Rackspace Expands App Offering with Launch of Cloud Drive is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.



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NaviSite’s Managed Hosting Services Power InMobi’s Expansion

(The Hosting News) – NaviSite, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVI), a leading provider of cloud-enabled enterprise-hosting and managed-application services, today announced that InMobi, one of the fastest-growing global mobile advertising networks, selected NaviSite’s managed-hosting services to expand its reach into the North American mobile advertising space. Founded in 2007, InMobi provides intelligent mobile advertising solutions that enable advertisers to discover their target audiences on mobile internet sites in a measurable manner. InMobi’s web-based platform allows advertisers and publishers to match and build ad campaigns and serve contextual ads across networks.

NaviSite developed and deployed a managed dedicated server platform with multiple Linux servers with high-speed Intel Xeon 5000 series CPUs running behind dedicated Cisco firewalls. The deployment and launch, aided by NaviSite’s award winning Always There™ support team, were smooth and efficient, resulting in a high-performance dedicated environment that exceeded InMobi’s expectations. Several weeks after the initial deployment, InMobi once again leveraged NaviSite’s rapid implementation capabilities to set up a second environment. InMobi has plans for additional expansion in the coming months.

“Partnering with NaviSite has been beneficial to us in more ways than one,” said Mohit Saxena, Head of Technology, InMobi. “The NaviSite servers have so far worked without any glitches, assuring us of their reliability. Second is the satisfaction of our customers who say that InMobi’s new [NaviSite-hosted] data infrastructure has resulted in outstanding ad response times. The customer testimonial reconfirms our belief in NaviSite.”

“NaviSite’s ability to deliver a wide array of high-performance, highly-reliable managed-hosting environments in such a rapid manner is unique in the SMB hosting space,” said Sumeet Sabharwal, Senior Vice President of SMB Hosting, NaviSite. “We have demonstrated numerous times that our expertise lies in guiding and architecting solutions for companies like InMobi, helping them deliver reliable solutions to rapidly growing customer bases.”

NaviSite offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-enabled managed-hosting solutions – including database management; server management; virtualization; disaster recovery; remote monitoring; and network and security services – designed to meet customers’ IT management needs and maximize uptime and efficiency.

NaviSite’s Managed Hosting Services Power InMobi’s Expansion is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.



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Nexsan Debuts New Partner Opportunities at European NexStep Conference

(The Hosting News) – Derby, United Kingdom – Nexsan, a leading storage systems provider for the mid-market, kicks off its annual NexStep EMEA VAR conference on November 18th in Berlin, Germany. NexStep is an annual gathering of the Nexsan reseller community where partners will network and build connections, share best practices, and learn new skills and techniques. At NexStep, Nexsan will share its strategieEdits and visions for addressing the challenging economy, saving customers money, and helping partners compete with confidence. Philip Black, Michael McGuire, Gary Watson and many other Nexsan executives will share their vision for the company and preview highly efficient storage solutions for 2010 including upcoming launches of the 84TB SATABeast and the 60 drive NXS-B60E.

Besides presentations from Nexsan’s executives, industry analysts including Mark Peters, Senior Analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) and Valdis Filks, Research Director for Storage Technologies and Strategies at Gartner, will speak about current market trends, showcase recent research results and share their thoughts on the industry.

“Nexsan is entering a year of exciting new product launches and partners will play a pivotal role in bringing to market what customers want — choice, flexibility and cost savings,” Michael McGuire, Nexsan’s Chief Commercial Officer. “With the NexStep Partner Conference, we’re creating a community based on our continued commitment to serve the needs of our partners that will help them reach their full potential. Working together, we continue to focus on creating innovative solutions that drive profitability and sustain competitive advantage.”

Highly Efficient Storage Solutions

One focal point at this year’s NexStep conference is to highlight out how the deployment of Nexsan highly efficient storage solutions enable midsized organizations to achieve capital and operational savings with power efficient, space efficient and cost efficient technology. Lectures on strategies to implement purpose-built SME storage, the advantages of green storage, the benefits of deduplication and sophisticated archiving concepts are part of the comprehensive two-day program. Besides technical and sales aspects, Nexsan’s CEO Philip Black will point out the company’s vision concerning the development of the storage market and the differentiators that drive Nexsan’s competitive advantage.

About Nexsan Technologies

Nexsan Corporation is a leading provider of energy-efficient, long-term storage systems. Nexsan delivers secure storage appliances and modular, capacity-optimized disk-storage systems for a broad range of applications including fixed content storage and archiving, email, medical imaging, compliance and litigation support, disk-based backup, digital video security, and rich media. Nexsan’s solutions are the choice of small and medium-sized companies as well as large global enterprises and major governmental agencies around the world who are seeking cost-correct, high density storage solutions. Founded in 1999 and based in Thousand, Oaks, Calif., Nexsan sells its products exclusively through a select global network of VARs, OEMs and system integrators. For more information, please see the company’s website at nexsan.com.

Assureon, SATABeast, DATABeast, NexScan and Nexsan Technologies are registered trademarks and SASBoy, SATABoy, The Edge and AutoMAID are trademarks of Nexsan. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

END

Nexsan Debuts New Partner Opportunities at European NexStep Conference is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.



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Open-Xchange Announces Agreement with Nexen – Alter Way Hosting Groupware is Offered

(The Hosting News) – NUREMBERG, Germany, and COURBEVOIE, France – Open-Xchange, provider of business-class open source collaboration software, announced today an agreement with Nexen – Alter Way Hosting, the French leader in open source web hosting to offer hosted e-mail and collaboration.

Hosting customers of Nexen – Alter Way Hosting will get both Open-Xchange webmail and PIM (Personal Information Management) at no additional charge with an option to move to full groupware, as well as support for mobile devices.

Nexen – Alter Way Hosting is part of Alter Way and has a sister company, Alter Way Solutions, which is the system integrator unit. Alter Way Solutions has experience with a series of successful on-premise Open-Xchange implementations in the French market and was named for three consecutive years by Open-Xchange as “Best integrator of the year.“ Based on its experience, Alter Way decided to expand its Open-Xchange offerings with a hosted solution provided by Nexen – Alter Way Hosting. This gives small- and medium-size business in France the option to select either hosted Open-Xchange delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), or a traditional on-premise installation.

”Nexen – Alter Way Hosting and Alter Way Solutions are excellent examples of how our partners benefit from the Open-Xchange technology and business model,“ said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. “Both on-premise and hosted Open-Xchange use the same software code, which gives partners freedom to choose either deployment model. We’ve found that SaaS enables small- and medium-size enterprises to benefit from groupware technology without an initial investment or on-going administration, which translates into cost savings.“

Open-Xchange software integrates e-mail, calendar, contact and task management with advanced groupware features such as information management and document sharing. Productivity is enhanced through unique teamwork features, like team view, single-password document sharing, and shared calendars, contacts, tasks and documents.

“SaaS is a great business model for system integrators and service providers because it provides an additional source of recurring revenues, along with a tight customer linkage,“ said Christophe Ballihaut, CEO of Nexen – Alter Way Hosting. “We are seeing amazing market uptake on our hosted Open-Xchange offering sold as SaaS as we are the first provider in the French market to deliver exciting new features like Social OX for integrating social network data, as well as the OXtender for Business Mobility, which gives small businesses and individuals a cost-effective solution to facilitate work remotely.“

Open-Xchange is installed by more than 3,500 companies and organizations worldwide with the Open-Xchange Hosting Edition used by more than 15 million people worldwide as hosted business-class e-mail, along with personal information management (PIM) and full groupware.

About Alter Way
Alter Way provides four key services: consulting (Alter Way Consulting), training (Anaska – Alter Way Formation), integration and professional services (Alter Way Solutions) and hosting with added value (Nexen – Alter Way Hosting). Alter Way covers the main needs of IT: CMS, ECM, e-trade, CRM, business intelligence, job application, mailing, systems and network management. For more information, visit www.alterway.fr.

Nexen – Alter Way Hosting is the leading provider in design, engineering and hosting of open source web technologies in France. The company provides a complete range of high-performance and secured hosting solutions with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) architecture. Find out more by visiting www.nexenservices.com.

About Open-Xchange
Open-Xchange is the innovator of scalable and integrated open source e-mail and collaboration solutions for enterprises, academic institutions, and government authorities. The company provides on-premise versions called Open-Xchange Server Edition and Open-Xchange Appliance Edition, along with Open-Xchange Hosting Edition, which enables web hosting companies to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich application delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). The Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is architected to integrate into a hosting provider’s existing infrastructure, such as authentication, provisioning, billing, and e-mail storage and does not require that these systems be replaced.

Open-Xchange AG is a privately-held company headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany with offices in Olpe, Germany and Tarrytown, N.Y. For more information, please visit www.open-xchange.com.

Open-Xchange Announces Agreement with Nexen – Alter Way Hosting Groupware is Offered is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.



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Innovation and Standards Update

In my last blog post on standards and innovation (Why Standards Matter…And When They Don’t) I mentioned that Cisco’s VNTag, had been submitted to the IEEE for standardization. Last week, the IEEE authorized a project, 802.1Qbh: Bridged Port Extension, to amend the Ethernet switch standard to include capabilities like those provided by our VNTag technology.

Official Scope of Project:

Amendment specifies protocols, procedures, and managed objects to support Port Extension.  A Port Extender attaches to a MAC port of an 802.1Q bridge and provides additional MAC ports that are logically ports of the 802.1Q bridge to which it is attached (i.e. the “Controlling Bridge”).  The protocols, procedures, and managed objects specified in this amendment are expected to specify new behavior in bridges that support port extension as well as the behavior of Port Extenders themselves.  In addition, the protocols, procedures, and managed objects specified in this amendment support the cascading of Port Extenders.  To the extent technically reasonable, all frame filtering and relay functions remain in the Controlling Bridge. 

Use of a STag for Multichannel capability as being defined in Edge Virtual Bridging is envisaged to achieve this objective.  A new on-the-wire indication (e.g. a new tag) is envisioned to support remote replication for purposes including frame flooding and group address support.

As always, Cisco is committed to supporting 802.1Qbh in its products once it becomes a ratified standard.  More information about the proposed standard can be found at the following links:

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November 29, 2009 | TechMan | Tags: , | No Comments »

Why Standards Matter…And When They Don’t

The year was 1992, Disney’s Aladdin was the top grossing movie, Garth Brooks had the top-selling album in the US, and I was a freshly minted SE.  Being a studious and diligent SE, I read up on all the gear sold by the integrator I worked for, and I decided that the Wellfleet BCN was the product of choice for our customers based on its hardware architecture and the impressive list of standards to which it laid claim.

 

And, then a funny thing happened…I learned that, while customers value standards compliance, what they value even more are networks that work and do what they need them to do.  And herein lies the inherent contradiction of networking standards and the constant tension between innovation and standards.

 

Ultimately customers look to us to address their problems: “I need my network to _________ (fill in the blank) so I can support the needs of my business—oh, and I’d like that ASAP, please” .  Luckily, our customer base is not shy, so when we see a trend, we move to address it and put solutions out there for our customers.  This is where innovation is critical—having the ability to continually move the ball forward to ensure networking continues to meet the needs of markets that are themselves continually evolving.  

 

But, ultimately, standardization is the end goal.  Without standardization, innovation cannot scale.  Time and again, we have seen that if a technology is balkanized, it stalls because no one wants to choose poorly (on a somewhat related note, I have a fine collection of HD-DVDs I’m willing to part with at a fair price).

 

Most of you are probably familiar with some version of the technology adoption lifecycle chart below, made popular by Geoffrey Moore in his seminal work “Crossing the Chasm”.

 

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Virtuozzo vs. Xen

We currently use Xen as our virtualization technology. To put it simply, Virtuozzo (or the open source version OpenVZ) is one level above chrooting or BSD jail. Yes, Virtuozzo has much less overhead per VPS instance and has some performance advantages, but at a cost of isolation and reliability. Virtuozzo uses OS level virtualization, while Xen uses paravirtualization.

When evaluating the different virtualization technologies we had very specific requirements. We wanted virtualization technology that allowed for:

  • dedicated server like isolation.
  • customizations to the installed operating system (i.e. kernel, iptables, etc.) just like a dedicated server.
  • proven deployment.
  • cannot oversell services (ensuring a specific level of quality of service).
  • complete separation of each operating system installation.

The differences with Virtuozzo and Xen are:

  • fixed memory and disk definitions.
  • custom kernels.
  • firewall configuration.
  • isolation.

For our purposes Xen acts, breaths, and looks like a dedicated server.

Fixed Memory and Disk Definitions

In Xen’s current form, memory cannot be oversold. If the node only has 16 GB of ram, it means only 16 GB of ram can be allocated to all VPS instances. Virtuozzo offers bustable memory, whereas Xen has hard, fixed caps. Burstable memory is great if you have control over all of the VPSes (everyone is friendly), but when you have a diverse environment, we prefer hard memory caps (you’re guaranteed by the technology that you actually get what you pay for).

With Xen, like a real server, you get a specific amount of memory and swap space. This allows the operating system handle memory and swap to disk as needed. Memory on Virtuozzo is a much muddled situation. To the VPS instance, it all appears to be memory, when in fact it’s not. With Virtuozzo, It’s not uncommon for services to just die because no memory is available. Depending upon the provider, memory can be oversold and performance is then no better than shared hosting setups. Currently with Xen there is no way for us to do this and therefore you know that what you pay for is exactly what you are getting.

Firewall Configuration

Firewall configuration with Virtuozzo is very limited and you do not have access to the full iptables setup. This means there are many hoops you must go through to firewall your VPS instance. Most Virtuozzo providers configure their setup to have the node control the firewall configuration.

Custom Kernel

Xen allows for custom kernels. Each VPS instance can be unique. Need a special module, or custom kernel? With Virtuozzo, since the virtualization uses the same kernel for all VPS instances, you can’t do this. With Xen, each virtual server has a separate kernel and allows for increased security.

Isolation

This is an area that is typically more anecdotal than “hard facts,” and is always up for debate by both sides. While the Virtuozzo crowd states their virtualization technology performs better, the tests I’ve seen have are not real world situations. The simple fact is that I’ve never heard of a Xen node getting overwhelmed and bringing down the other instances. With Virtuozzo we’ve seen this happen a lot and it is primarily because of two factors:

  • Oversold memory and bustable memory.
  • Hypervisor scheduler. While Xen’s scheduler options are much more limited, it works and works well.

In our case we’ve had many times where we’ve seen a specific VPS instance running at 100% CPU usage and high disk IO without the other VPS instances even missing a beat. With Virtuozzo it is assumed each VPS will play well with others and this simply is not always the case. The biggest limitation with Xen is it’s disk IO scheduler. The IO scheduler is somewhat simplistic, but does have the benefit that you can control unruly virtual servers and prevent them from affecting the other servers.

Summary

If you are looking for “dedicated-like” performance, customization, isolation and security, Xen is a perfect fit. With our managed virtual servers, it’s like getting a dedicated server for a fraction of the cost!

Also keep in mind that while we currently use Xen we are not married to it. We are always looking at the other virtualization technologies. With the recent announcement from Red Hat, KVM definitely has a chance. The way our cloud infrastructure is designed, the VM manager really doesn’t matter. In the end, what matters to us and our customers is running what works and is stable, secure and provides the best isolation. For now, Xen is that perfect fit, while Virtuozzo is simply not as robust.

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November 27, 2009 | TechMan | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »
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