* A virtual appliance offers the potential to alleviate some of the management burdens in branch offices
Over the last few years, there has been a lot of discussion in the trade press about virtualization. While some of these discussions make it appear as if virtualization is a new topic, it is not. We have had virtualized WANs since the advent of X.25, roughly 30 years ago and we have had virtualized LANs for almost 15 years. So virtualization is not new, but that doesn’t mean that we can ignore it. With that in mind, this WAN newsletter will begin the discussion of the impact of virtualization on networks and applications.
Virtualization is a very broad topic. This newsletter will primarily discuss virtual appliances and future newsletters will discuss other forms of virtualization such as virtualized servers, desktops and applications. Simply defined, a virtual appliance is based on network appliance software, together with its operating system, running in a virtual machine (VM). Virtual appliances can include WAN optimization controllers (WOC), application delivery controllers, and firewalls. A virtual appliance offers the potential to alleviate some of the management burdens in branch offices because most of the provisioning, software updates, configuration, and other management tasks can be automated and centralized at the data center.
Virtual appliances, such as virtual WOCs, would be of particular interest where server virtualization technology has already been implemented both in the branch office, as well as in the data center. In the branch office, a virtualized server could host a virtual WOC appliance, as well as other virtual appliances that would normally require separate hardware platforms. Part of the promise of these technologies is that when server virtualization pervades the enterprise, application acceleration with virtual WOCs can be rapidly implemented wherever it is needed and without the installation of additional hardware.
WOCs and virtual WOCs can also play a role in helping to distribute virtualization technologies to the branch office. For example, WOCs can greatly accelerate transfers of virtual images from the data center out to virtualized servers in the branch offices. WOCs can also potentially provide the boost in performance and scalability that would make virtual desktops a viable solution for provisioning and managing branch office desktop environments.
WOC virtualization can also be leveraged to provide “acceleration as a service” to facilitate and improve performance in the deployment of service-oriented environments, including SOA and SaaS. In the case of SOA, WOC images can be easily deployed to be co-residents on the virtual servers that host the various components of a geographically-distributed SOA application. In the SaaS space, virtual WOCs can be provided as a stand-alone managed software service or bundled with other managed software services to increase their performance.
As noted, virtualization is a very broad topic and this newsletter just scratches the surface. Those readers interested in more information should download the 2009 edition of the Application Delivery Handbook, which is currently available for free here.
That handbook contains a detailed description of the advantages and disadvantages associated with virtualized servers, desktops and storage as well as a detailed analysis of virtualized appliances. Also, one of the sessions that Jim will be moderating at Interop in Las Vegas this May is entitled “The Impact of Virtualization on Networks and Applications.” If you are going to be at the conference, you should attend that session.
