Customer Scenario
Any lag in data access performance can hurt productivity. As data environments grow, so does the need to ensure that applications operate at maximum potential. While virtualization technologies deliver great benefits, they are memory intensive and place a heavy demand on servers. Virtualization software must manage multiple virtual environments, while efficiently delivering application and data services. That is why top server performance is crucial. Processor technology must handle more complex operating environments inherent in virtualized infrastructures, including being optimized to run multiple virtual machines, while improving efficiencies and performance for virtualized environments.
AMD + Microsoft Solution
Although most companies realize that virtualization can bring tremendous advantages, many are uncertain about when and how to begin virtualizing their data centers. When considering virtualization technologies and how to optimize them for success, organizations should keep these three factors in mind:
Don’t hesitate. The sooner an organization begins to implement virtualization the faster it can reap the benefits.
Explore 4-socket servers running AMD Opteron processors. These servers provide a richer virtualization environment in terms of I/O and memory capabilities to deliver better server utilization and performance. By using fewer large servers, organizations can improve consolidation and power efficiency.
Implement on servers using Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with AMD-V technology for improved performance and easier memory management. Servers running AMD Opteron processors enable organizations to run more virtual machines per server and improve the time it takes to “switch” between virtual machines, achieving a flexible and productive virtualization environment. In addition, the Windows Server 2008 operating system supports multicore processors at the host level and improved memory access within virtual machines, so organizations can scale their virtualization environments to support more virtual machines within a given host—and continue to leverage quick migration for scalability across multiple hosts.
Microsoft and AMD provide robust processor, server, and desktop virtualization technologies for a powerful virtualized infrastructure:
AMD Opteron processors provide a solid foundation for the evolution to x64-based virtualization. Giving companies the ability to run both 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines on the same server allows for maximized IT investments. By combining the effects of Direct Connect Architecture, with its integrated memory controller and HyperTransport technology and AMD-V technology, organizations can easily achieve the advantages of virtualization, supporting more users, more transactions, and more resource-intensive applications in a virtual environment.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 enables centralized management of physical and virtual IT infrastructures, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms.
Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V consolidates multiple server roles as separate virtual machines running on a single physical machine so that users can efficiently run multiple operating systems—Windows, Linux, and others—in parallel, on a single server, and take advantage of the 64-bit operating environment.
See the solution in action: Watch the video and read the success story.
Microsoft Terminal Services presentation virtualization separates where an application or desktop is used from where it is run, enabling users to consolidate applications and data in the data center, while providing broad access to local and remote users.
Microsoft Application Virtualization transforms applications into centrally managed virtual services that are never installed, do not conflict with other applications, and can be streamed on demand to desktops, servers, and laptops.
