- Industries
- |
- Services
- |
- Technology
- |
- Clients
- |
- About Unisys
- |
- Unisys.com.au
Automation critical to the virtualised enterprise in 2010Automation tools will drive the next wave of virtualisation
SYDNEY, 17 April 2008 – The next wave in Virtualisation will be marked by the automation of the infrastructure management, enabling business to make their operations more agile, flexible and competitive.
According to a Unisys white paper, The Virtualisation Landscape to 2010, businesses are grappling with increasingly complex, unwieldy IT infrastructure, and have discovered that virtualisation on its own – as currently deployed – does not address the issue of managing a complex business infrastructure.
“Virtualisation’s first big push into mainstream use was its ability to combat server sprawl,” says Geoff Dickson, vice president Sales and Services, Systems & Technology, Unisys Asia Pacific. “By enabling the creation of a number of virtual machines on each physical server and, therefore, increasing utilisation rates, virtualisation helped CIOs consolidate servers and slow the sprawl.”
“However, the ease of creating virtual machines to run applications and business processes has seen the number of virtual servers balloon at many enterprises. The result is ‘virtual machine sprawl’, which has simply moved the problem from the physical infrastructure, to managing potentially limitless capacity.”
Unisys predicts that the recognition of this complexity challenge will drive the adoption of tools, some of which are already available, to automate the IT infrastructure so it becomes a real-time infrastructure, responding to changing business needs on demand.
Automation tools can allow the infrastructure to rapidly change which servers are running what software and how those servers are connected to network and storage. It can re-purpose machines according to the real-time demands of the business. It can also enable capacity to be "dialed up" or "dialed down“. And it can bring up a failed server on new hardware, with the same network and storage access and addressing, within minutes. All without needing to make physical machine, cable, LAN connection or SAN access changes.
In this automated infrastructure, powerful workflow automation and management systems with strict policy can:
On the governance side, the CIO will have tools to monitor and report on the performance of the automated infrastructure, its applications and services, and to set policy and demand planning.
“The ability to track and chargeback system use to various parts of the business will be integral to the automated infrastructure,” says Mr Dickson. “The CEO and CIO will know the demands the various business applications place on the system, and be able to view their impact on the bottom line – profit and loss. This transparency will allow clearer decision making about resource allocation and viability of business plans.”
According to Unisys, the automated virtualised infrastructure is not a far-off pipe dream. Some of the tools are already available today. “We have the capability to build automated infrastructure now. The skill will be drawing together the suite of automation tools. System integrators like Unisys with deep experience of marrying the stack of server hardware and software to the business needs will lead the field,” says Mr Dickson.
About Unisys Asia Pacific
Unisys offers clients solutions for secure business operations by aligning technology with business strategy. Drawing on a history of industry innovation and expertise, Unisys provides specialised services, delivered by trusted consultants. In Asia Pacific, Unisys delivers services and solutions through subsidiaries in Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand and through distributors or resellers in other countries in the region. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.au.
About Unisys
Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. We provide consulting, systems integration, outsourcing and infrastructure services, combined with powerful enterprise server technology. We specialise in helping clients use information to create efficient, secure business operations that allow them to achieve their business goals. Our consultants and industry experts work with clients to understand their business challenges and create greater visibility into critical linkages throughout their operations. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.au.
Contact
Pip Sheardown, Unisys, 0406 992 816
|
