Dear Visitor, Much has been said and written about the unique capabilities that result from a melding of IBM BladeServers and virtualization technology. Here, we’ve gathered the most recent information published on the subject for BladeServer build around the IBM xSeries server. Key partners with IBM and VMware on this combines solution and has specialists that can work with you to determine the value of blades with virtualization at your IT center. Here, you can find webinars, white papers, analyst reports, articles, conference information, definitions and even a book on this vital topic for saving power and space in your datacenter. We hope this information will be of assistance in assessing the value of employing blades with virtualization in your organization. Cordially, Pete Elliot Director of Marketing

Analyst Reports

Forrester (available for purchase on Forrester site)

The Virtualization Imperative NEW!
November 8, 2007
By: Galen Schreck
Why Virtualization Is The Key To IT Flexibility

Gartner (available for purchase on Gartner site)

Virtualization Changes Virtually Everything NEW!
March 28, 2008
By: Philip Dawson and Thomas J. Bittman
Virtualization is hot. It changes and touches nearly everything in the IT portfolio. It affects what you buy, how you buy and how you implement it. This comprehensive Special Report focuses on the impact of virtualization on traditional IT focus areas, as well as future impact and planning aspects.

Relevant Links

Virtualization and Blades: A Match Made in Heaven NEW!
MCPress Online; June 2008
By: Pete Elliot
This article, written by Key's Pete Elliot, covers the importance of IBM BladeServers and the emergence of Virtualization as a way of getting the very best out the BladeServers in your datacenter.

Using VMware to cement server consolidation NEW!
SearchEnterpriseLinux.com; April 4, 2006
By: Mimi Yeh
Because both Windows and Linux support it, VMware is the best virtualization solution for heterogeneous environments.

EMA Research on Virtualization NEW!
Virtualization.com; April 17th, 2008
By: Robin Waters
EMA’s Mann believes desktop virtualization will show the strongest growth of any virtualization technology during the next one to two years.

Is Virtualization the Biggest Vulnerability in IT Today? NEW!
Virtualization.com; April 9, 2008
In the past few months, security researchers have revealed bugs in practically every piece of virtualization software, including products from virtualization heavyweights VMware and Microsoft.

Virtualization Thrives, Security Struggles to Keep Up NEW!
ITBusinessEdge; March 28, 2008
By: Carl Weinschenck
Virtualization squeezes multiple operating systems onto a single physical machine. That saves space and overhead - good things, certainly - but also creates the possibility of a problem impacting a greater proportion of what the company is doing.

The Virtualization Challenge NEW!
E-COMMERCE NEWS; March 19, 2008
Multi-Part Series by: Richard Adhikari
Part 1 of this five-part series defines virtualization; Part 2 takes a look at the business drivers for virtualization; and Part 3 examines the challenges enterprises face when they virtualize their IT environment. Part 4 covers implementing and maintaining a virtualized system. This final installment focuses on security in the virtualized environment, Part 5: Virtualization & Security.

Altor Networks secures VMware virtual machines with firewall, analyzer NEW!
SearchServerVirtualization.com; March 17, 2008
By: Bridget Botelho
Altor Networks has just reached the 1-year-old mark and has introduced its first products to address security concerns in virtual environments: Virtual Network Security Analyzer (VNSA) and Virtual Network Firewall.

Desktop virtualization benefits come at too high a price, users say NEW!
SearchServerVirtualization.com; April 11, 2008
By Bridget Botelho
Several vendors sell desktop virtualization products, but for some users the cost of the software, hardware and infrastructure upgrades required to run hundreds of virtual desktops outweighs the management and security benefits.

IBM Power VM™ NEW!
IBM; 2008
The virtualization platform for UNIX, Linux and IBM i client.

Virtualization Has Come a Long Way Baby! NEW!
Geekdom.com; April 17, 2008
By: RickGeek
Comprehensive discussion of Hypervisors and “what’s new” re: Virtualization technology.

Virtualization Gone Wild! NEW!
PROCESSOR; March 21, 2008
The ability to run operating systems and applications on virtual machines can create a conflict of resources in an IT environment. On one hand, the company is saving itself from purchasing additional servers, but on the other, the existing servers can easily become so taxed that the original purpose of saving money and other resources becomes overshadowed.

Latest IBM BladeCenters Cool Down
ServerWatch; April 13, 2007

Clearing up Misconceptions about Mixing Blade Servers and Virtualization
Combining the two technologies provides 'double the benefits,' consultant says.
Computerworld; April 18, 2007

Clearing up Misconceptions about Mixing Blade Servers and Virtualization
Source: VMBlog.com
Posted by David Marshall on Thursday, April 19, 2007 5:50 AM

VMware Solutions
Simplify IT so companies can leverage their storage, network, and computing resources to control costs and respond faster.

Virtualization Means Fewer Blinking Black Boxes
InternetNews.com
March 20, 2007
By Andy Patrizio
Discusses IDC's estimates for server sales and the effect of virtualization on these numbers. Reporting period for stats provided is between now and 2010.

Swainson: Virtualization Everywhere in 5 Years
InternetNews.com
September 20, 2006
By: Clint Boulton
Focuses on the complexities that are introduced when virtualization of processors, storage, networks, applications and databases takes place. SOA is presented as a way to manage these complexities.

Definitions

Blade servers:
"Self-contained computer servers, designed for high density. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can exist with (at least) a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed for space, power and other considerations while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer."

Virtualization:
"A broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. One useful definition: "A technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple logical resources, or it can include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource."

Related Definitions
Wikipedia on Blade Servers Blade Servers & Virtualization: The implementation of virtualization technology with blades to benefit the IT user with both space and power-saving solutions.

Other Definitions of Pertinent Terms

Virtualization Application is a field within computer science which deals with breaking the age old bond between physical hardware, operating system, and the program which runs on top of them. From the time the ENIAC first went into production in the mid nineteen forties, until the present day, software has been "installed" on the specific machine upon which it will execute.

Network Virtualization The ability to stream operating systems and applications on-demand from network storage enables key benefits.

Storage Virtualization: refers to the process of abstracting logical storage from physical storage. The term is today used to describe this abstraction at any layer in the storage software and hardware stack.

Server Virtualization Definition: Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is the practice of hosting a desktop operating system within a virtual machine (VM) running on a centralized server. VDI is a variation on the client/server computing model, sometimes referred to as server-based computing (SBC). The term was coined by VMware Inc. In the past few years, some large organizations have turned to VDI as an alternative to the server-based computing model used by Citrix and Microsoft Terminal Services.
Server Virtualization definition sponsored by SearchServerVirtualization.com, powered by WhatIs.com, an online computer dictionary.

Diagrams

Blade Server Diagrams
IBM's own diagrams showing the components of the IBM BladeServer

Books in Publication