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Executive Summary
This paper introduces the
concept of a Virtual IT Infrastructure for a flexible, reliable and
scalable architecture that can easily and cost-effectively be extended to
support a multiple-site solution to meet disaster recovery and business
continuity requirements. It focuses on the needs of medium-sized
organisations, typically between 200 and 2,000 users, although the
architecture and economics work just as well for larger and smaller
organisations.
We have divided IT
infrastructure into three layers: access, applications and storage. The infrastructure may immediately comprise all three layers,
or you may choose to build towards the eventual system design by
implementing one part at a time or growing the system organically.
The access layer
allows users access to IT services, applications and data from any
location, whether it be from a desktop PC, thin client terminal or other
device.
The application layer
runs business applications, allows them to operate in a flexible and
protected manner, improves application deployment time and reduces downtime
by allowing Virtual Machines to be moved easily from server to server.
The storage layer is
the system foundation and in most scenarios is the obvious first step. It
will provide the business with storage capacity and, more importantly,
enable processes such as data replication to ensure that data is securely
stored and available from more than one location. We will look at two
approaches to delivery of the storage layer, the first using traditional
storage arrays, and the second using virtualised storage systems.
Either approach is viable, but the more innovative virtualised storage
approach offers many benefits analogous to the virtual servers in the
application layer and is, therefore, worthy of serious consideration in a
virtual infrastructure deployment.
There are two key
business benefits of the Virtual Infrastructure. The first is system
flexibility; it can be scaled and adapted easily to meet the constantly
changed demands of modern business. The second is cost-effectiveness,
Transam has relatively modestly sized clients quoting savings of over a
quarter of a million pounds in hardware costs alone achieved in the first
year of Virtual Infrastructure deployment and there are many more in the
wider world.
A simple example of more
cost-effective deployment relates to business continuity, where it has been
normal to expect each server that required protection to be duplicated at
the secondary site. With the Virtual Infrastructure that is no longer the
case, as each physical server is able to run several applications. Adopters
of the Virtual Infrastructure have also found themselves able to make much
better utilisation of existing IT investments, a compelling story for
business managers.
