ScaleMP Previews KVM and Xen Virtualization Solution: VM-on-VM

ScaleMP, a leading provider of virtualization solutions for high-end computing, today announced a technology preview of its VM-on-VM technology, which consolidates multiple servers running KVM and Xen virtualization software on a virtual system allowing the virtualization software to use the aggregated virtual server resources. Virtual machine (VM) consolidation provides improved VM management, hardware cost-savings and decreased operational costs. Delivered as an enhancement to the vSMP Foundation product line which aggregates multiple industry-standard off-the-shelf x86 servers into a single virtual high-end system, the VM-on-VM technology delivers increased system utilization, better application performance and more IT infrastructure flexibility.

 “Server resources are often underutilized even when virtualized because application peak requirements cannot always be optimized by administrators spending large amounts of time managing multiple hardware platforms,” said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “Capabilities like VM-on-VM enable organizations to host more workloads on larger sets of resources, with the end result being more dynamic flexibility and higher average hardware utilization.”

vSMP Foundation’s VM-on-VM technology allows organizations to run new and pre-existing KVM and Xen installations on top of a virtual symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) system. VM-on-VM provides users with workload balancing and improved performance.

The innovative VM-on-VM technology offers users:

• Easier system management in highly virtualized IT infrastructures – enabling organizations with increasing infrastructure sprawl to support larger virtualized server environments by integrating with existing server virtualization management functionality to provide a unified, single point of management for the entire infrastructure rather than having to manage each node.
• Improved system utilization – offering a high server utilization rate with increased single system densities by aggregating hardware nodes and load balancing compute overhead for peak application workloads.
• Reduced system cost – utilizing aggregated system resources of several dual-socket systems for a large-memory and high-core-count virtual SMP, saving costs compared to traditional 8-socket SMP systems.

“Based on customer feedback we’ve seen a need for organizations to have the ability to run their virtual machines as one single large resource, rather than separate pools of resources,” said Shai Fultheim, founder and CTO of ScaleMP. “vSMP Foundation's aggregation platform creates a single virtual machine across multiple server systems, providing easier cluster management. With the new VM-on-VM capability IT organizations can optimize and better manage new and existing server virtualization infrastructure.”

Availability

vSMP Foundation with the VM-on-VM technology capability is currently in beta and works with KVM and Xen virtualization installations. It will be available for qualified customers in July 2010. For more information or to register for the technology preview, visit http://www.scalemp.com/vmonvm.

About vSMP Foundation

SMP Foundation aggregates multiple industry-standard off-the-shelf x86 servers into one single virtual high-end system. vSMP Foundation provides customers with an alternative to traditional expensive symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) systems and also offers simplified clustering infrastructure with a single operating system. It supports aggregation of up to 128 servers into a single virtual SMP system, providing customers with:

    * Up to 64 TB of shared memory for large memory requirements
    * Up to a 1,024 processor, 8,192 core virtual SMP, proven scalability and record-breaking memory bandwidth
    * Ease of use and lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for applications, with simplified cluster management and storage architecture
    * Improved cluster utilization by providing a centralized and consolidated architecture