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Server Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Manchoopaporn Boonchoo

Department of Computer and Information Technology, University of The Cumberlands

ITS 831- B01: InfoTech Import in Strat Plan

Dr. David Filer

July 25, 2021

Server Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Server virtualization and cloud computing are essential in every organization. Server virtualization mainly refers to the process used to divide a single physical server into so many isolated and unique virtual servers by using a software application. It is used to mask server resources for their users, including the number of processors and operating systems. Cloud computing involves delivering on-demand computer services to the storage and processing power from multiple applications. Most organizations use cloud computing to access anything from a cloud service provider rather than owning their computing infrastructure. The discussion below will discuss an organization's environment and its preparedness for virtualization, Microsoft licensing, and Windows Azure.

Innovative Solutions Technologies is an organization that is used for data storage and other related technologies. This organization offers various types of tools that make it easy for data to be stored. The products produced by this company are designed for enterprise and personal use. Innovative Solutions Technologies' business environment is spread worldwide with its workers, manufacturing, and operations are found globally. Smart Technologies experiences a dynamic climate with new competitors, changing regulations from the government, and a constant shift in consumers. These, in turn, affect the operations and performance of the business. Evaluating Smart Solutions Technologies to determine whether it's prepared for virtualization, it was clear that it is not fully equipped for virtualization. The current organization's environment is not conducive as it's faced with many challenges that affect its operations and performance (Nagesh et al., 2017). The company is not prepared for virtualization since it has not written a solid plan to keep them on track. The company has not defined the servers that need to be virtualized and the reasons as to why some servers need virtualization.

Microsoft licensing for virtualized environments refers to a Microsoft software found under the per-processor licensing model and is run in a virtual OS environment. It is certified according to the number of virtual processors that are used by the virtual Operating System environment but not the number of physical processors in the server. Microsoft policies reduce the cost of virtualized environments whereby most people running Windows server2003 RS Web will not be affected and will not receive any benefits from the guidelines. For these policies to apply to the other Windows Server Editions, a customer must be using Datacenter or Enterprise editions of Windows Server 2003 to benefit from the guidelines. The Microsoft Licensing policies about virtualized environments apply to both Microsoft server virtualization products and VMware. Any additional OS licensing cost savings realized by the customers while using Datacenter and Enterprise Editions should be recognized by the VMware customers. The capability to run several guests OS licenses at no additional charges only applies to a small group of Microsoft customers running an enterprise. Customers only pay for active and running OS instances as instances such as those of applicable OS stored in virtual machines are not active and therefore do not require additional licenses. Examples of Windows OS and the server application are portable and can travel through licensed devices. The moving of permits through the servers requires that the target physical and the source be licensed appropriately. Microsoft has produced several materials and journals that talk about licensing policies. The white paper published on virtualization policies gives a precise specification on the procedures for licensing within the virtualized environments.

A configuration for shared storage that I recommend is when specific content is copied to an external primary storage device and pulled to each Adobe Connect server's content folder as required. The old content is removed from each server's content folder to create room for new content as needed. This type of configuration frees the resources on the application server, which is usually helpful in a large cluster. Another possible shared storage configuration that I would recommend is copying content to all servers and an external storage device. This configuration is only recommended for minor clusters unless you have a large amount of content that can be accessed randomly. A value in the shared storage box is entered, leaving the content cache empty. Most agencies are converting to virtualization to ensure the high availability of their most critical IT assets. The use of virtualization has many benefits for high availability. The main advantage is that it's much simpler for IT managers since you don't have to change applications manually if they run in clients using motion technology or in encapsulated servers. It also offers simplicity in that multiple machines can run on a particular server, and the workload can move as required. High availability means having a virtualized system where if an entire server breaks, another virtual machine takes over within seconds and uses fault-tolerant servers with full redundancy on hardware, allowing for real-time data storage. Using virtualization, it's possible to obtain a redundancy system for all the services running on a data center (Meena, 2021). Therefore, each machine contains a 3RC system that allows each virtual machine to restart or reinstalling from zero. The closer the redundancy is to the application, the higher the availability delivered. A load-balanced web is readily available than a single server. Data redundancy is a requirement for almost all computing, as data integrity may sometimes require storage redundancy.

The use of Windows Azure in virtual machines provides individual virtualization flexibility without buying and maintaining physical hardware that runs it. Virtual machines need to be supported by performing several tasks such as installing the software that runs them, configuring, and patching. Windows Azure is mainly used for running virtual machines in the cloud, hosting infrastructure components such as Windows Server, and supporting third-party operating systems like Linux. Windows Azure in virtual machines is also used to host databases in the cloud. It offers server-less nonrelational databases such as NoSQL and relational databases such as Azure SQL. The platform is also used for disaster recovery and backup. Microsoft divides Azure into cloud services like computing, web, mobile, and networking. Computing enables the user to manage and deploy virtual machines and support the access of remote applications. Resources developed within the Azure cloud are configured with private IP addresses and public IP addresses depending on whether the help is to be accessed y the outside world. Web services support the deployment and development of web applications and offer features for content delivery and reporting. Mobile products help the developers build applications for mobile devices, providing support for back-end tasks and group geospatial context with data. Networking includes virtual networks and gateways that protect the distribution of denial of service attacks (Atiewi,2018).

To manage a hybrid cloud, many IT organizations have developed a hybrid cloud strategy that helps them to run their services in a public and private cloud. Microsoft has the most robust hybrid cloud offering on the market with Microsoft Azure, yet they can monitor both clouds from a single console. Combining the management of the hardware resources of public clouds with private clouds in a data center will help manage a hybrid cloud. This is possible since most companies have data security policies that prevent certain information from being hosted on third-party hardware. Windows Azure's Infrastructure as a service includes virtual machines and network services, which help avoid the expenses and complexity of managing and buying physical servers and other data center infrastructures. Single storage in Windows Azure can store up to 500TB of data, and users can take advantage of the pay-per-use pricing model. There are two types of storage accounts whereby the standard storage account enables users to access blob storage, file storage and blob storage.

Conclusion & Recommendations

Virtualization and cloud computing are essential in organizations. Windows Azure is also helpful in virtual machines as it provides the flexibility of virtualization without maintaining and buying the physical hardware that should be used to run it. Tasks such as configuring and patching by Windows Azure are also helpful in retaining virtual machines. Configuration of shared storage by copying the existing files into an external device to create room for new files is also advised. The use of virtualization in organizations has many benefits such as its makes it easier for IT managers as they don’t need to change applications manually if they are running in encapsulated servers. The use of virtualization also makes it possible to redundancy in a system for all the services running on a data center. Microsoft policies help to reduce the cost of virtualized environments thus most of the people using the server 2003 RS web always receive benefits from the policies. Microsoft licensing policies can apply in both VMware and Microsoft server virtualization products. Only a small group of customers who are running an enterprise have the ability to run additional OS licensing cost savings. Organizations are therefore advised to apply the use of cloud computing and virtualization.

I recommend that cloud computing should be used in organizations since it is beneficial in many ways. Cloud computing helps in reducing costs of maintaining and managing IT systems, provides easy access to automatic updates, and ensures collaboration efficiency.

References

Atiewi, S., Abuhussein, A., & Saleh, M. (2018). Impact of Virtualization on Cloud Computing

Energy Consumption: Empirical Study. Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Computer Science and Intelligent Control, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3284557.3284738

Meena, J. K., & Banyal, R. K. (2021). Efficient Virtualization in Cloud Computing. 2021 5th

International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC), 227–232.

https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCMC51019.2021.9418425

Nagesh, O., Kumar, T., & Venkateswararao, V. (2017). A Survey on Security Aspects of Server

Virtualization in Cloud Computing. International Journal of Electrical & Computer Engineering, 7(3), 1326-1336.

http://doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v7i3.pp1326-1336