When it comes time to start thinking about Virtualization, here are 5 important factors to think about:

1. Platform: Which is the most Suitable Platform?

There really are only three major competitors: VMWare, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Parallels Virtuozzo. Each one of these platforms offers Competitive advantages as well as different pricing models.  For Example, running Microsoft Hyper-V allows you to run unlimited Windows Operating Systems under a single License which would lower the license costs for your organization, but might it may not be the best candidate if you are a Linux based organization. 

2. Number of Containers: How many virtual servers can you fit on each Server?

This really depends on the current CPU/RAM usage of your current environments.  One commonly made mistake is overloading the host server with too many Virtual Instances which will cause poor performance. 

3. Domain Controller Placement

Another thing to take into consideration is failover and proper disaster recovery for your Domain Controllers.  Placing your Primary and Secondary DNS server on Separate Virtual Nodes is best practice as well as having enough failover machines to handle the event of a Virtualization Host Failure. 

4. Migration Strategy

Determine a Migration Strategy and evaluate all your current candidate applications to migrate to your virtual environment.  Note that not all applications should be migrated to virtual environments.  For example, some versions of Microsoft Exchange are not supported on select Virtual Platforms.  Doing your homework  is one of the most important step that needs to be taken before moving to a new environment and/or platform.

5. Failover and Backup Plan

Now that you are running more environments on fewer servers, backup and disaster recovery become even more critical.  Setting up a proper backup strategy for all of your Virtual Environments is crucial.  On the disaster recovery side, even if you run your virtual servers in house, you should secure a failover Virtual environment.  At LogicalSolutions.net, we offer failover Virtual Environments that will run your applications in the event of a failure.

When I first started in the Data Center Services Industry, I was with an International provider working out of headquarters in NYC.  Man, I thought that was the place to be…..New York City, the most important metropolitan city in the world with the latest and greatest that technology had to offer. Things were going great.  We had a beautiful data center and NYC was overflowing with companies that needed our services.   Customers were lining up at our door….we couldn’t build cabinets fast enough.  The Data Center industry was on cruise control and I was driving it in New York City.    Then came Sept. 11, 2001.  We were located about 10 blocks from the World Trade Center – not that far when you’re talking about city blocks in Manhattan.  The city stopped, nobody was allowed access to our building for weeks.  Yes, the generators kicked on when the power failed, our multiple access providers allowed us to maintain connectivity and our staff did a great job keeping our customers online.  As we all experienced, everything came to a screeching halt after the attacks.  Without downplaying the tragedies of that day, my focus for this message is that although the data center performed exactly as it was supposed to, our customers quickly changed the way they viewed where their data center is located and their disaster recovery plans.

Well, now it’s 2009 and I’m fortunate to continue my career within the Data Center services industry with LogicalSolutions.net.  I followed the lead of a lot of my clients from NYC and moved away from the metro area and headed north to Upstate, NY.  Most of the customers I had in NYC either moved their primary  infrastructure out of the NYC data center and into one located in this region, or setup a DR site in a data center located in this area.  Either way, they quickly discovered that data center services provided in Upstate, NY are not only as good (if not better), but the price is right too.   One of the many things that Upstate has to offer is the climate.  Our climate lends itself very well for data center cooling and power management.  I’m sure you’ve heard that Yahoo has even recognized this and is building their newest data center in Buffalo.  LogicalSolutions.net has built its newest data center in Pittsford, NY – a suburb of Rochester.  With our data center located in this area, we are able to accomplish many things.  One of those is the ability to reduce power costs by utilizing the latest technologies by taking advantage of the cooler climate.  Combined with the ability to provide metered power, we are able to manage power utilization more efficiently which enables us to pass tremendous cost savings on to our customers.  When you are considering data center services, start to consider the Upstate, NY region for the energy efficient processes, robust backbone options, and skilled engineering support.

When the LogicalSolutions team took on the project of designing a new Data Center our goal was to build a facility that was reliable, secure and one that would make our people and our client’s proud.  We started by taking the lessons that we have learned firsthand from operating Data Centers for over 14 years, and combined that experience with state of the art designs and technologies from around the world.  After reviewing all of this material, the area that we saw the greatest opportunity for advancement in was power management and energy efficiency.

The computer industry is currently faced with exponentially increasing operating cost as newer more powerful hardware consume more power per server multiplied with the increasing cost of energy.  Last year alone U.S. Data Centers consumed about 80 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), roughly 2 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption and it is estimated that this figure will double over the next 5 years.  In order to combat this trend of increasing cost both for our clients and the environment, LogicalSolutions.net selected only the most efficient power distribution and cooling technologies available; but this was only the first step. 

To measure the efficiency of a Data Center the industry uses a metric called PUE.  It stands for Power Usage Effectiveness which is a fancy name for a ratio that represents the total power coming into the Data Center divided by the amount of power used by the servers.  Over the last 3 months our team has created a Green Meter that calculates the efficiency of our Data Center in real-time, utilizing the network of revenue grade power meters that we have installed on all of our equipment. This tool has enabled us to tune our systems, which in turn, increased the efficiency of our Data Center by an additional 15%.  This tool also helped us realize that the efficiency of our Data Center is directly tied to outside air temperature.  As it gets cooler outside it takes less energy to keep the servers cool therefore we are able to increase the percentage of our total power usage that goes to the servers. For every degree we are below 80F the Data Center operates approximately 1% more efficient.   With the annual mean temperature of Rochester being 48 degrees Fahrenheit, combined with reasonable electric rates and great fiber paths in and out of the region, it makes upstate New York an ideal location for Data Centers.  Also evidenced by Yahoo's decision to build their next Data Center near Buffalo.

What does all of this mean for our clients?  LogicalSolutions.net is currently the only Data Center in upstate New York and one of the few in the country that offers revenue grade power metering for all of our electrical circuits.  By utilizing this branch circuit monitoring system, we are able to provide our colocation clients with variable rate pricing for electricity based on actual KWh consumed.  This billing system saves our clients money and rewards them for being responsible with their power usage.