Server Virtualization in Miami
Server virtualization is the masking of server resources, concealing the number and identity of physical servers, processors and operating systems from users. One physical server is divided into a number of virtual environments.
Server virtualization has been in evidence in Miami. The University of Miami (UM) is one of the foremost research universities in the United States. It’s the largest private employer in Miami-Dade county, serving more than 15,000 students at 12 colleges spread across five campuses.
The 10 IT staff of the university’s Windows server group support the university’s Windows-based infrastructure. As well as managing servers, the team supports a wide range of Microsoft technologies including the Active Directory service and SQLSever database. Manuel Garriga, Senior Systems Administrator for the UM Enterprise Windows Server Group, said, “We have many more responsibilities than you would expect a systems group to have and, therefore, we’re always looking for ways to simplify our IT processes”. The group appreciated a pressing need to consolidate servers and streamline management.
UM’s server infrastructure exceeded the capacity available and valuable resources were used to administer it but, just like everyone else, UM needed to cut costs in these economically straitened times. Inviolable constraints existed with server rack space, A/C cooling thresholds and power.
UM now runs Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, migrating Vmware Server and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to Hyper-V technology. Microsoft System Center products are used to manage, monitor and back-up the environment.
The UM decreased its number of physical servers, currently running 27 virtual machines on just three physical hosts. Supporting 24 less servers has saved $35,000. Data space and power requirements have been reduced. There has been an 80% saving in energy costs. Virtual server deployment time has been slashed form hours to minutes. Disaster recovery is now more robust.
