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As virtualization goes mainstream and becomes an integral part of the IT infrastructure, there are increasing opportunities for IT services to help customers implement and support this expanding technology. According to a recent research from IDC, the virtualization services market will grow from $5.5 bn in 2006 to $11.7 bn in 2011, as CIOs struggle to address power and cooling issues and the need for increased capacity. India is no exception. Currently, the market for virtualization services is nascent in comparison to the overall market for IT services. However, as the market evolves, CIOs feel that service providers will need to be able to demonstrate virtualization capabilities to be considered for larger services engagements.

With the growing need to improve efficiency and availability of resources in an organization, businesses are rapidly adopting virtualization as the next level technology. The capability to run multiple applications based on both Windows and Linux platforms simultaneously in a virtualized environment is the biggest power a CIO can have. The virtual architecture not only endows maximum utilization of all hardware, reduces server and storage requirements; but it also helps in optimal usage of available resources, and cost optimization. However, it is suggested to draw a clear business vision; and identify the needs before opting for a virtualization strategy. It is also important to establish a flexible and scalable architecture, that can support future growth and upgradation effortlessly.

While many may think of the virtualization exercise as another overhead for a company, it may not necessarily be so. At least thats what most CIOs of India Inc feel today. The four CIOs Dataquest spoke to advocated a hardware-independent approach that complements server and desktop virtualization without compromising availability, speed, or project schedules. The consensus seems to be that virtualization can significantly lower capex and opex for physical and virtual environments alike, making such transitional initiatives viable.

Do It with Caution

Venkitachalam Babu, head, shared networks, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)

Venkitachalam Babu, head, shared networks, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)

Virtualization, according to Venkitachalam Babu, is still in its nascent stage in India. However, it is fast becoming a trend, he says. The primary reason, he says, for virtualization increasingly capturing the imagination of CIOs is the need to optimize the underutilized hardware like servers, etc, to the maximum, and to take advantage of the significant reduction in costs. The major areas, he thinks where virtualization is being tried out are consolidating servers, storage, and networks.

According to Babu, every CIO before embarking on the virtualization path must look into and analyze his needs. According to me it is very important for CIOs to go through their existing system and to formulate policy for changing their computer architecture through virtualization, he says.

Like most other CIOs, Babu doesnt dispute the apparent benefits of virtualization, but he thinks that Nobody should jump into the bandwagon just because others are doing it. In his views an overall analysis of the plausible results of virtualization is very important.

They (CIOs) should conduct a study and analyze the areas where they can implement and where it will result in cost-reduction before venturing into it, he says. At the most basic level, as per Babu, every CIO should take his unique requirements into account before investing in any technology.

The other problem with virtualization according to him is that cost-saving may not happen immediately. It may occur over a period of time. Another point to kept in mindin Babus viewis that in a non-virtual scenario, failure of one server will not affect the functioning of others. But in the case of virtualization, there is a failure risk if one/few of the machines come to a standstill. This has to be kept in mind, and necessary fall-back mechanism is to be worked out by alternative methods to take care of exigencies, he concludes.

Key to Success

Akshaya Gaur, executive VP and head, software solutions, Scope International

Virtualization has gained increased popularity over the last few years. It has been deployed by most of the Fortune 500 companies, especially in managing test, development, and low critical applications in production. However, very few organizations have adopted virtualization for critical applications in production.

Akshaya Gaur, executive VP and head, software solutions, Scope International

With technology advancement, companies are gradually moving away from physical servers towards cloud computing infrastructure. Many large enterprises are setting up their own internal clouds, while SMEs are using public clouds. Reduction in bandwidth cost and the existence of an interconnected world will act as catalysts.

Additionally, organizations will move towards buying capacity through unit pricing as against paying for an entire server. This pricing model is not new to the industry, it is similar to the model used in most mainframe environments.

At Scope International, consolidation of servers has helped in increasing the server density in data centers. As the company is engaged in several large projects simultaneously, managing server requirements for these projects is a huge challenge. Unlike production, in a test and development environment, the demand for servers is not the same throughout the project lifecycle. The dynamic provisioning feature helps us allocate new servers in a short-time to meet project requirements. We are now in a better position to manage any increase in demand, whether planned or unplanned, explains Akshaya Gaur, executive vice president and head, software solutions, Scope International.

Scope has also introduced a server on demand model, specifically for small projects. This caters to projects that need server space for a short duration. In the past, the only option was to procure or rent a server, not really a justifiable investment for a small project. Virtualization has helped Gaur to build capacity that can be allocated to projects for a period of time based on the need.

The key challenge in the virtualization space is storage management and planning, to keep the cost low. In order to take advantage of the mobility of virtual machines offered by enterprise virtualization solutions, organizations would have to place these machines on storage networks that are expensivean aspect, if not considered, would make virtualization an expensive proposition. Also, it calls for people with relevant skills to manage and support it, says Gaur. We have taken an opportunistic approach to virtualize the test and development environment, focusing on new server requirements by projects, he adds. Gaur has virtualized a large portion of Scopes servers and is now focusing on virtualizing servers in the production environment. This means, all new requirements will be hosted in a virtual environment.

Taking Off Smoothly

PJ Koul, deputy GM, IT, Air India

Those who have been familiar with the services rendered by Air India, probably will agree that over a couple of years, service standards of Indias largest domestic carrier has enhanced profusely. By service, I am not talking about on board, but overall process efficiency that is automated through the use of information technology.

PJ Koul, deputy GM, IT, Air India

Thanks to the in-house IT team, Air India has of late consolidated its data center; as a result of which it has successfully enhanced its overall business operations. The next major step taken by the organization has been its switchover to a virtual environment. As per its IT policy, Air India thrives to get an infrastructure that is synonymous to reliability, availability, and service ability. Its virtualization strategies therefore, is based on these objectives only. According to P J Koul, DGM IT, Air India, it is very important to identify the core business requirements; and design a solution accordingly. The idea should be cost optimization, and not just reduction; that will not only save money, but enhance operational excellence.

Air India is running all its core applications related to passenger services, as well as internal operations on IBM mainframe platform. The DNA of this latest technology inherently supports virtualization to the maximum. The architecture supports several Linux servers to be run simultaneously, and also allows multiple partitioning if required. This further allows Koul to logically partition the hardware accrediting effective utilization of power of the machine for various workloads. This architecture enables to obtain higher utilization capacity of machines; as well as simplify our IT designing and framework. This also supports all types of latest available technology like IT-on-demand, says Koul. This system has been deployed as the building block of our virtualization strategies, that can give us maximum benefits of virtualization. Under normal circumstances, utilization rate of hardware is pretty poor; whereas the same is significantly higher in case of a virtual environment, he adds. Apart from running its core applications on this architecture, the organization has recently merged its email sever into this as well. Virtualization has further helped the organization achieve other significant benefits like easy manageability, enhanced security, and optimum resource and cost utilization.

For a Greener Cause

Sanjay Jain, CIO, WNS Global Services

Virtualization proved to be the ultimate solution for WNS Global Services to control its spiralling costs of running separate dedicated storage for its 200-plus clients. The companys Rs 2,700 crore award-winning virtualization initiative involved consolidating and virtualizing all its infrastructure components into a centralized environment. This required a great deal of persuasion on the part of the CIO, Sanjay Jain to ensure complete client buy-in on the security aspects, compliance, and control within the new virtualized environment.

Sanjay Jain, CIO, WNS Global Services

Maintaining separate servers for each client resulted in huge operational costs and managing issues. To tackle this, WNS focused on three broad aspects, namelystorage virtualization, shared server environment through domain consolidation, and desktop virtualization.

Under storage virtualization, WNS implemented a combination of SAN and NAS infrastructure. The NAS infrastructure supports the shared file storage, while the SAN supports the corporate databases and email. The SAN and NAS infrastructure has also helped reallocate additional storage space, as per the client requirements. This, in turn, has translated into huge cost savings and also addressed the scalability and manageability issues to a great extent. Apart from storage virtualization, WNS also carried out server virtualization, where it moved to shared services domains, removing the need for 200-plus domain controllers. This is when WNS decided to focus on domain consolidation and to move clients to a shared services domain. The move to a shared domain environment reduced the calls to the help desk by about 30% and improved the quality of service, hence, resulting in higher customer satisfaction levels. The third area that WNS has started work on is desktop virtualization in partnership with VMWare to improve seat utilization in its BPO set-up. It is still in its initial stage of deployment and will be completed in the next twelve to eighteen months.

These virtualization initiatives have helped WNS in freeing up unused storage boxes and server capacity, and re-deploying them for new programs. According to Jain, The reduced number of servers and storage devices have also helped WNS significantly bring down its maintenance costs, power consumption, and reduce its carbon footprint. This forms a critical part of its corporate Green Six Sigma program to make WNS a carbon neutral organization. The centralized infrastructure has also helped WNS extend its network to newer geographies such as Costa Rica, Romania, and the Philippines.

Mehak Chawla, Shrikanth G, Piyali Guha & Priya Kekre
mehakc@cybermedia.co.in
shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in
piyalig@cybermedia.co.in &
priyak@cybermedia.co.in

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