First of all, let’s define the Virtualization
What is virtualization?
“In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. Virtualization hides the physical characteristics of computing resources from their users, be they applications, or end-users. This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple virtual resources; it can also include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single virtual resource…”
History
Virtualization is not a new concept. One of the early works in the field was a paper by Christopher Strachey entitled “Time Sharing in Large Fast Computers”. IBM began exploring virtualization with its CP-40 and M44/44X research systems. These in turn lead to the commercial CP-67/CMS. The virtual machine concept kept users separated while simulating a full stand-alone computer for each.
In the ’80s and early ’90s, the industry moved from leveraging singular mainframes to running collections of smaller and cheaper x86 servers. As a result, the concept of virtualization becomes less prominent. That changed in 1999 with VMware’s introduction of the VMware workstation. This is follow with VMware’s ESX Server, which runs on bare metal and does not require a host operating system.
Types of Virtualization
The term virtualization is divide into a number of concepts including:
- Server Virtualization
- Client / Desktop / Application Virtualization
- Network Virtualization
- Storage Virtualization
- Service / Application Infrastructure Virtualization
In most of these cases, either virtualizing one physical resource into many virtual resources or turning many physical resources into one virtual resource is occurring.
To the effect of open virtualization in people’s lives
In this case, are going to Discuss Virtualization, and that when combined together into a ‘platform’ how they deliver unique opportunities and value for our customers which in turn allows them to further innovate in ways that can drive their businesses to a greater good.
An example of this is recent work is with Intermountain Healthcare. Intermountain Healthcare drove investments with Virtualization as well as CloudForms and Ansible. Combined, these offerings when integrated into Intermountain’s day-to-day business processes resulted in increased service delivery levels—important in the healthcare world.
As Brett Lawson, Intermountain’s Director of Infrastructure & Operations says, “What I do matters. I can make a difference in people’s lives.” Let’s drill down on Intermountain Healthcare, their needs, and outcomes:
Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit health system that includes hospitals, clinics, and health insurance plans in the intermountain west area of the United States. They needed to optimize and automate their IT infrastructure to reduce costs and better collaborate to quickly create and launch innovative patient services.
How to support innovative patient care
The old Intermountain Healthcare IT environment made a change a complex process, and supply delays hindered development. In addition, central hardware and proprietary software added licenses and other IT costs.
The team was looking for a more agile and flexible solution that would simplify the IT environment and ultimately improve costs for end customers. “The community sees the Intermountain as a partner, one who relies on the best health care at a reasonable cost,” Lawson said.
Way of solve: Transfer to open source solutions
Its long-time, trusted technology partner, for help designing and deploying a new environment using open source virtualization and management solutions.
“When we did a proof of concept against proprietary solutions, “In fact, we gained the same functionality as our existing proprietary software, which took a year to get running properly, in just three weeks.”
Intermountain has now migrated a third of its IT infrastructure to Virtualization, provisioned, and managed with CloudForms. In addition, several components of the company’s MyHealth patient app—a solution that offers access to lab results and medical records—have been migrated to OpenShift, with others planned for future migration.
Results of agile, cost-effective IT—for patient
With agile, easy-to-use technology, Intermountain’s teams can provision their own virtual machines (VMs). And container technology has reduced the need for time-consuming custom deployments.
As a result, deployment time has decreased from two to three weeks to about four hours, and VM provisioning time has improved from three days to just 20 minutes. By migrating to open source software, Intermountain has significantly reduced its IT costs—including licensing and staffing costs. Lawson again notes, “our Intel and solution has helped us reduce costs while still getting the availability, power. And a performance that’s required in a clinical environment.” In addition, Intermountain’s new, flexible environment supports collaborative DevOps work.
Conclusion
Technology is evolving in a number of different ways but the central themes revolve around increased stability in existing areas. And accelerating adoption by segments of the industry that have yet to embrace virtualization.
Beyond these core elements, the future of the effect of open virtualization in people’s lives is still being written. A central dividing line is a feature or product. For some companies such as RedHat and many of the storage vendors, virtualization is being pushed as a feature to complement their existing offerings. Other companies such as VMware have built entire businesses with virtualization as a product.