2012 – We’re Out of the Starting Gate

 

Alan Robin, CEO, Xangati

The barriers have been removed, and we’re already off and running in 2012. Out of the starting gate, virtualization is no longer the dark horse but a recognized favorite, with growing acceptance and opportunities. Forty percent of servers overall have been virtualized, and Gartner projects that number to grow to 75% by 2015  (Gartner Magic Quadrant Report, June 2011). Further, virtualization is finally being acknowledged as a strategic business asset. As expressed in a Network World 2012 Outlook: “The days of tactical deployments are done; be strategic.”

But making virtualization a sure thing requires performance management, and smart bettors will make it the top pick on their racing cards. According to Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman (eWeek December 22, 2011) management is key to maximizing any virtualization deployment within an enterprise data center. Further stated by CRN in its 10 Biggest Virtualization Stories of 2011, “virtualization management takes center stage.”

Xangati is witnessing this first-hand through its own experience – through broad market acceptance of its XMD product suite – with hundreds of customers and more than 5,000 downloads – and counting. Organizations are widely virtualizing mission-critical applications and expanding VDI deployments – and effective performance management is giving the advantage needed to cross to the lead.

At CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), bottlenecks had plagued their VDI system for months. No solution could identify the problem. Less than 24 hours after installing the XMD, CBRE pinpointed storage latency and network congestion as the perpetrators.

The track conditions in virtualized infrastructures are fast. To stay in the money in 2012, second-by-second insight is vital. Virtualization managers need real-time insights into what’s going on within their infrastructures – both physical and virtual. Only live and continuous data feeds can show the causality of behavior and interactions between objects – something that is imperative in order to successfully troubleshoot problems.

The XMD gives virtualization managers the right metrics to lock in on problems quickly for the fastest troubleshooting odds available.

You can’t wear blinders when you’re managing a virtualized environment. Without 360-degree insight – covering all silos – you face an insurmountable handicap. With last year’s introduction of our Performance Health Engine, you can now easily compare real-time data feeds versus baseline profiles for every object impacting the VI or VDI in four microseconds. This gives you a huge advantage before you even make the first curve.

Further, Xangati’s agent-free model provides the scalability that is so fundamental to managing virtualized environments, allowing views into 100s of thousands of dynamically intertwined interactions down to the second. All of Xangati’s capabilities have been carefully designed to allow you to easily increase your virtual footprint and maximize your technology investment.

After hitting a wall at 60 percent completion, Resources for Human Development (RHD), a national non-profit with 4.500 employees, leveraged the XMD to achieve 98 percent virtualization in less than one quarter.

The need for third party management tools that can cover your whole environment is only increasing as organizations integrate hypervisors from multiple vendors – creating demand for a unified all-in-one management approach. Xangati’s goal remains as always to provide you with the most complete picture possible. To do so, we will continue to innovate in 2012 – adding interface options and role-based dashboards that fuel different views for enhanced configuration management and even deeper cross-silo insights.

We made tremendous strides in 2011, and our achievements were recognized once again as a winner in the Best of VMworld Awards program – for the second year in a row. As we leave the starting gate in the New Year, we’d love nothing more than to make it a Triple Crown in 2012!