Virtualization and Online Backup: A New Win-Win Scenario

VMWare has captured the attention of the storage space unlike any other technology in quite some time. VMWare's primary value proposition is virtualizing multiple physical Linux, NetWare, Windows and Solaris servers on a single physical server. While companies may first look at VMWare from a cost-saving perspective to minimize the number of production servers they need to manage, companies may hesitate in adopting it.

IT managers are, by their very nature, risk-averse so while they may see the value proposition of VMWare, they know that beneath the surface of every new technology, even one such as VMWare, lies unknown issues.  IT managers do not want to be the first to uncover and have to work through those issues. So while the idea of virtualizing 5, 10 or even 20 physical servers onto one physical server may sound appealing from a financial and technical perspective, it also creates the harsh reality that a single server hosting multiple virtual servers creates a single point of failure. Historically, when an IT Manager lost a single physical server, only application services on that server were negatively impacted. Forward looking, if the hardware supporting a VMWare server fails, all of the application services on that VMWare server also fail.

The other concern with VMWare is that it requires different skill sets than most entry-level and mid-level system administrators typically possess. Managing a VMWare instance may require understanding and supporting technologies such as N-Port ID virtualization (NPIV), memory ballooning, iSCSI SAN support and storage I/O traffic prioritization. These are not trivial tasks and certainly not skills that the average Linux, Solaris or Windows administrator are likely to have acquired in their current roles. IT managers are then faced with helping their staff acquire new skills and transition from their existing environment to an emerging virtual datacenter.

This is where using online backup in conjunction with a company's real servers or the virtualized servers can take some of the risk out of this transition. An online backup service provider should be able to support the following restore capabilities:

• Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) - Backup data from a physical server is restored to a virtual server
• Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V) - Backup data from a guest system is restored to another guest or virtual machine
• Virtual-to-Physical (V2P) - Backup data from a guest is restored to a physical server

Of these three, companies considering virtual datacenters should evaluate the physical-to-virtual (P2V) option first. Since companies often have multiple physical servers in multiple locations, the idea that one should replace all of one's existing physical assets with one new virtual server is perceived as too risky for most. Using online backup with existing servers and then using virtualized servers to recover data gives companies a viable and safer means to start the transition to a virtualized environment since it gives them a justifiable means to understand how virtualization works.

To execute P2V recoveries, companies can use online backup services from AmeriVault to first backup their current servers. They then can experiment with VMWare in a disaster recovery scenario to simulate recoveries of data from any of their servers to virtual servers. What makes this combination practical is that companies can solve their immediate backup problems using online backup; they can provide a viable option to recover any of their servers in any site using VMWare; and they can use this as an opportunity to expose their existing administrators to VMWare in a relatively risk-free manner. This creates a win-win-win scenario for everyone involved and one which companies would be advised to explore.

Lastly, if virtualization is being considered, one must ask if the legacy backup method will adapt to the new virtualized environment.  With online backup, you're going to use the Internet and not physical hardware, therefore eliminating any roadblocks and paving the way for future backup and recovery flexibility.