So, another press release from EMC that seem innocuous enough, but really doesn't get to the big ideas behind it.
And, unfortunately, it's going to look like I'm pandering again, because it's about EMC Avamar (which I write about all the time), and VMware (which everyone else is writing about now, in addition to me).
But, trust me, I think there's a really big idea here that you might find interesting ...
Avamar Virtual Edition
If you wade your way through the press release, you'll see it's about a VMware-ized version of Avamar.
What this means is that the backup environment is completely virtualized -- source and target.
And you'll probably see a whole lot more of this thinking in the near future.
OK, So I Think Avamar Is Way Cool ... Especially For VMware
I've written before about how I think EMC Avamar's approach to client-side global data deduplication is inherently better than the more common target-side dedupe.
Better data reduction. Less data sent over the wire. Faster backups. Backups stored in native format. Etc.
And I've talked about when you consider VMware being backed up, it gets even more obvious, at least to me.
All virtual machine images are files. These files have an inordinate amount of duplicated data among themselves. Server images proliferate like crazy in VMware environments, and every server image is a slight modification of another one.
Going a bit further, when you consolidate servers, you consolidate backup streams as well. Maybe you've worked through 8:1 memory and CPU requirements, but you're also doing 8:1 consolidation of backup streams as well.
Getting inside the backup windows in a VMware environment can be expensive or problematic using traditional backup approaches. Client-side global data dedupe makes this a breeze, and no special iron required.
That -- in itself -- could be enough right there.
But the Avamar guys went even further.
Avamar Runs In A Virtual Machine Now
The back end of Avamar is software that runs on industry-standard servers. It uses muliple storage/compute nodes in a RAIN-like (Redundant Array of Independent Nodes) to achieve cost, availability and performance nodes.
Before EMC acquired them, they'd tell customers to go acquire some servers to use the product.
Yes, that's workable, but some customers didn't like the hassle. And, if you're just getting started with a new product, having to go out and buy new server hardware can create another obstacle to adoption.
With this announcement, the game has changed considerably.
The back-end of Avamar is now a virtual machine. It'll run anywhere VMware runs.
Want to try it out? Simply load it up on any VMware-enabled server. No muss, no fuss.
Want to grow it a bit? Give it more storage behind the VMware server that it's running on, using the same provisioning techniques you'd use for any other VMware-running application.
Want to make it go faster? Add more back-end instances to support the workload.
All the good bits around DRS (load balancing) just work. All of VMware's HA stuff just works.
Slick, indeed.
It gets better. Let's say you have remote offices that need to be backed up. And you've figured out you'd like to do a star topology with local backups happening locally, then shipped to a central site.
The remote offices can run the backup server (and its associated storage) as just another virtual machine.
Slick, indeed.
You can live in the virtual world for some time, but -- as your environment grows -- you're going to maybe want physical hardware that's dedicated for the purpose. Fine -- that's an option when you want it.
What About Other Infrastructure Software?
What Avamar has done is virtualize their infrastructure software using VMware. No need to touch physical hardware at all.
But the idea doesn't stop there. What about your network mgmt software? Could that run in a virtual machine? Yup. How about all that stuff you've got in IT to keep things running? Could that all run in virtual machines? Yup.
Here's the prediction: before long, all IT vendors who provide infrastructure software will be "strongly encouraged" to make their products run in virtual machines. I'd say within just a few quarters, it'll be the de-facto expectation.
Evaluating new tools will be easier. Managing the server environments that support the tools will be easier. Less hardware and software will be needed. Upgrades will become simpler. Federated implementations will become more realistic. Mash-ups between different tools will be easier.
And so on.
I think that virtualizing infrastructure software will change a lot of how IT thinks about running their business.
Not as exciting as the whole server virtualization things (think production apps), or virtualizing dev/test environments (think VMware's Lab Manager), or thin-client desktops -- but exciting in its own way.
So, take a look around your data center. Think about all the non-production stuff you're using to keep everything else running. All the backup software, mgmt software, monitoring software, all the servers, etc.
And imagine it all running in virtual machines.
What do you think the impact would be?
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