Netw 471 Unit 1 Research Paper
Course Project
NETW 471
Contents
Page
LIST OF ILLISTRATIONS 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION Virtualization 3 History 3
REASONING Problem 4 Solution 5
NETWORK Current Network 5 Proposed Network 6
THEORY Technological Imperative 7 Strategic Choice 8
Social Construction of Technology 8
Integrated Perspective 9
Critical theory 9
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION Conclusions 10 Recommendations 10
REFERENCES 11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
FIGURES
1 Current Network Structure 6
2 Proposed …show more content…
Network Structure 6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper was written on the uses of virtualization and to make a case for its use within the company. This software can help improve the overall ability of the Company. It is shown to improve the company by cutting cost, conserving revenue and increasing profit.
This document is broken down into five sections. First the section is that of the introduction. The introduction covers what virtualization is and the history of virtualization. This section starts the process and gives you a little background on virtualization and the starting point of virtualization. The second section is that of reasoning this section has two parts the problem and the solution area. It shown what our expanding company will face in the future with the servers and what they have to do for the company. It also goes into how virtualization will be the solution for the company and how it can solve these problems. The third section covers the network. It covers the existing network servers and the new proposal for the network servers. The fourth section covers some of the different network technology theories and how they can be used in the decision-making process. The last section covers the conclusion and the recommendation that are made for the use of virtualization.
It is recommended that the company upgrade the present servers so that the use of virtualization can be used for the company to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profits.
Introduction
Virtualization
Today’s economic times, corporations are looking at their IT to find ways of cost cutting or saving on the overall process.
Because of this they are looking into a new found technology which is virtualization. Virtualization is not a new concept. It has been around since the main frame computer systems. What is virtualization? It is defined as “the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources” (Rouse, Virtualization, 2010). Virtualization falls into three main categories: Operating System, Storage, and Applications. Because of this virtualization can be applied to almost any part of an IT infrastructure. According to Rackspace after conducting a survey found that 57 percent of companies use virtualization with their internal infrastructures (Connor, 2007). Along with that Gartner.com states that “Virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge” (Press Release, 2010). In this paper we will discuss server
virtualization.
History
Whenever virtualization is brought up most people think of companies like VMWare, Citrix, Oracle, Microsoft, and Red Hat Linux. Something that you do not realize is that server virtualization has been around since the mid 1960’s. It was pioneered by companies like General Electric (GE), Bell Labs and International Business Machines (IBM). The first system to have VM was the CP-40 it used a program called CP/CMS. CP (Control Program) was the program that created the virtual machines. The virtual machines then ran the CMS (Console Monitor System) program which was the single-user operating system that was interactive on the virtual machine. This system was never sold but was only used in the IBM labs. After the CP-40, IBM created the CP-67 which was released to the public in 1968. This system gave the customers the ability to increase their hardware utilization by being able to run more than one application at once. This type of virtualization continued running in the background until it was brought out to be used on the x86 servers in 1999 (Conroy, 2011).
Reasoning
Problem
Companies face many IT challenges such as low server use, server deployments, and many business requirements. Because of these challenges and the increased cost of IT ownership companies are trying to find ways to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profit. Along with these problems companies are want to implement their new or upgraded systems faster (Soni, 2012). Every company needs servers for many different aspects within the company. They have a need for servers to control the file systems, printers, DHCP, DNS, Application servers, Web server, and a proxy server to name a few. Each of these roles is often run on individual systems. If you think one server per role and then you have redundancy built into the system that can equate to a huge amount of servers. Currently the company has a dedicated physical server for each role, application or in some instances it has multiple applications sharing one physical server. The space needed to house all these different servers is huge and costly. Another factor that has to be taken into account is the size of the company. The larger a company is the more servers are needed to be able to serve all the different employees that access these servers (Server Virtualization: Branching Out of the Data Center, n.d.).
Solution
Virtualization can help the company save money in more than one way. It can allow the company to host a dedicated virtual server for each application all hosted on one physical server. Running this scenario allows the isolation of applications from each other. It increases the availability of the application while providing stronger access control and lowering the cost to the company. The company could host a dedicated virtual server for each application hosted on multiple physical servers. This scenario provides all the previous listed abilities while also providing improved application availability and a greater ability at disaster recovery (Server Virtualization: Branching Out of the Data Center, n.d.).
Network
Current Network
The different servers that the company uses at this time are running its own operating system and the application that is its primary function. This equates to the fact that the company has many servers in operation and then you have the added fact the company has multiple servers preforming the same task for redundancy (see figure 1). The company is expanding; adding additional servers to the network is a costly expense that the company can ill afford in these economic times.
Proposed Network
In the proposed network, each server will have its storage, memory, and CPU’s upgrade. With each server having these upgrade they will better be set to run the virtualization software. When each server is running the virtualization software it will be capable of having several different virtual machines running at the same time (see figure 2). With this configuration we can increase the amount of servers within the company but not have to increase the amount of actual hardware servers.
(figure 1) (figure 2)
Current Network Structure Proposed Network Structure
Theory
The theories that will be covered in this portion of the document will cover social theories and the analytic theories. The concepts that will be covered are the technological imperative, strategic choice, social construction of technology, integrated perspective, and critical theory. Virtualization and these theories will be combined to discuss the decision-making for the use of virtualization within the company. They will also be used to describe some of the benefits that can be garnered from the use of virtualization.
Technological Imperative Theory
The concept behind the technological imperative theory is that new technology is expected and important. The new technology must be designed, built and employed by companies. It also covers the idea that technology will get to the point where human innovation will not be enough and that technology will be the basis for any new technology (Technology imperative, n.d.). Dwayne Phillips’ idea on the theory of technological imperative states “states that if a new technology exists, we need it. Logic and business school lessons don’t matter” (Phillips, 2010). If we use this theory in conjunction with virtualization then it is a must that the company changes over to the use of virtualization. The theory points out that the technology is a need for the company to continue in business. If the company wants to still be in the mainstream of the business world then virtualization is the only way to go because of the need for this technology. This technology will keep the company in the mainstream of the business world within its field of expertise.
Strategic Choice Theory
The strategic choice theory is based on the decisions a company makes about the future of a company. The decisions made are based on the pressures and influences of its customers and the business world. When thinking of this theory and how it can be used in the determination on the use of virtualization within the company. The company must gather all the pertinent facts about the problem. The company also needs to look at all alternative choices that it is faced with to determine the best course of action that will benefit the company (Strategic Choice, n.d.). These choices will need to determine the most cost savings, reduction in operating costs and the generation of profits for the company.
Social Construction of Technology Theory
This theory can be defined as “the interactive sociotechnical process that shapes all forms of technology” (Paisey, 2012). This theory views technology and its development as an interactive process between the designers, developers and the relevant groups that will use the technology. The social construction of technology theory would have the company, the IT department and the end users of the technology in discussions on the technology and its benefits to the company. The company executives would still hold the final decision on the disposition of the purchase installation and use of the virtualization. In this thought the end users would have their say as to how the use of virtualization would affect the performance and productivity of their jobs. The IT department would have their says as to the maintenance of the virtualized servers and how this would either hamper of increase their abilities to perform other tasks since they would have more time for these tasks. The executives would use all this knowledge to make the final decision on the purchasing of the virtualization software and the server upgrades necessary to run the virtualization software (Paisey, 2012).
An Integrated Perspective Theory
The integrated perspective has to be defined by its parts. Integrated is defined as “join with something else” (Integrated, 2014) and perspective is defined as “the relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole” (Perspective, 2014). If these two definitions are combined it would be the relationship of the parts as joined to make a whole item. When you looked at the combined definition as it would pertain to virtualization within the company it is a definition that almost the opposite description of virtualization. Virtualization takes one item and makes many from it but it has the capability of the many. Virtualization takes one server and you install the virtual software and are able to create many servers on the one server. This will allow the company to have many servers for the lesser price of just one server.
Critical Theory
The critical theory is defined as “ a theoretical approach which stresses that all knowledge is historical and biased and thus claims to objective knowledge are illusory” (Critical Theory, 2014). This theory as used with virtualization is that any knowledge of this technology is biased because it is historical and there is no new evidence to support any claims on the virtualization technology. If the company uses this theory it will not trust any information provided to the executives. The executives would have to use the idea that the information is old and outdated and less likely to be valuable information and this would make the decision to use virtualization harder if not impossible. If this is used most likely the upgrade of the existing servers and the installation of virtualization will not happen because the one that will make the final decision will not trust the provided information and discount the ability of the software to help the company.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusions
It has been shown that the use of virtualization can help the company. It was shown that there are problems for the growing company and the need to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profit is a must within this growing company. It was also shown what the use of virtualization can do for the company by being able to use one server to replicate many servers. Virtualization was discussed and combined with different networking technology theories and how it would impact the decision-making process and the use of virtualization within the company.
Recommendations
The company wants to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profit. The use of virtualization will benefit the company because it will reduce the cost of purchasing more servers, it will allow the company to have more working servers without having to increase the workforce there by conserving revenue, and it will allow the company to be able to expand its ability to service more customers so the company can increase profits. In the end it is shown that the use of virtualization would benefit the company and should be implemented as soon as the company can fund the venture.
References
Connor, D. (2007, August) Survey: Most IT Departments Use Virtualization http://www.cio.com/article/130351/Survey_Most_IT_Departments_Use_Virtualization
Conroy, S. P. (2011, August) History of Virtualization http://www.everythingvm.com/content/history-virtualization
Critical Theory (2014) Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+theory
Integrated (2014) The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/integrated
Integrated Perspective (2013) Guanzi Institute: http://www.guanzi.com/glossary/Integrated_Perspective
Paisey, F. (2012, Feb) Social Construction of Technology http://www.slideshare.net/fpaisey/social-construction-of-technology-11490973
Perspective (2014) The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/integrated
Phillips, D. (2010, June) The Technology Imperative http://dwaynephillips.net/workingup/2010/06/the-technological-imperative/
Press Release (2010, September) Gartner.com: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1440213
Rouse, M. (2010, December) Virtualization, Tech Target: http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/definition/virtualization
Server Virtualization: Branching Out of the Data Center. (n.d.) http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/services-ready-engine-sre-modules/white_paper_c11-611291.html
Soni, M. (2012, December) The History Of Virtualization, http://cloudtweaks.com/2012/12/the-history-of-virtualization/
Strategic Choice (n.d.) http://www.smartbiz.nu/pages.asp?PageID=56&Base=1&MenuID=93
Technology imperative (n.d.) PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/64252/technology-imperative
NETW 471
Contents
Page
LIST OF ILLISTRATIONS 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION Virtualization 3 History 3
REASONING Problem 4 Solution 5
NETWORK Current Network 5 Proposed Network 6
THEORY Technological Imperative 7 Strategic Choice 8
Social Construction of Technology 8
Integrated Perspective 9
Critical theory 9
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION Conclusions 10 Recommendations 10
REFERENCES 11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
FIGURES
1 Current Network Structure 6
2 Proposed …show more content…
Network Structure 6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper was written on the uses of virtualization and to make a case for its use within the company. This software can help improve the overall ability of the Company. It is shown to improve the company by cutting cost, conserving revenue and increasing profit.
This document is broken down into five sections. First the section is that of the introduction. The introduction covers what virtualization is and the history of virtualization. This section starts the process and gives you a little background on virtualization and the starting point of virtualization. The second section is that of reasoning this section has two parts the problem and the solution area. It shown what our expanding company will face in the future with the servers and what they have to do for the company. It also goes into how virtualization will be the solution for the company and how it can solve these problems. The third section covers the network. It covers the existing network servers and the new proposal for the network servers. The fourth section covers some of the different network technology theories and how they can be used in the decision-making process. The last section covers the conclusion and the recommendation that are made for the use of virtualization.
It is recommended that the company upgrade the present servers so that the use of virtualization can be used for the company to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profits.
Introduction
Virtualization
Today’s economic times, corporations are looking at their IT to find ways of cost cutting or saving on the overall process.
Because of this they are looking into a new found technology which is virtualization. Virtualization is not a new concept. It has been around since the main frame computer systems. What is virtualization? It is defined as “the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources” (Rouse, Virtualization, 2010). Virtualization falls into three main categories: Operating System, Storage, and Applications. Because of this virtualization can be applied to almost any part of an IT infrastructure. According to Rackspace after conducting a survey found that 57 percent of companies use virtualization with their internal infrastructures (Connor, 2007). Along with that Gartner.com states that “Virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge” (Press Release, 2010). In this paper we will discuss server
virtualization.
History
Whenever virtualization is brought up most people think of companies like VMWare, Citrix, Oracle, Microsoft, and Red Hat Linux. Something that you do not realize is that server virtualization has been around since the mid 1960’s. It was pioneered by companies like General Electric (GE), Bell Labs and International Business Machines (IBM). The first system to have VM was the CP-40 it used a program called CP/CMS. CP (Control Program) was the program that created the virtual machines. The virtual machines then ran the CMS (Console Monitor System) program which was the single-user operating system that was interactive on the virtual machine. This system was never sold but was only used in the IBM labs. After the CP-40, IBM created the CP-67 which was released to the public in 1968. This system gave the customers the ability to increase their hardware utilization by being able to run more than one application at once. This type of virtualization continued running in the background until it was brought out to be used on the x86 servers in 1999 (Conroy, 2011).
Reasoning
Problem
Companies face many IT challenges such as low server use, server deployments, and many business requirements. Because of these challenges and the increased cost of IT ownership companies are trying to find ways to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profit. Along with these problems companies are want to implement their new or upgraded systems faster (Soni, 2012). Every company needs servers for many different aspects within the company. They have a need for servers to control the file systems, printers, DHCP, DNS, Application servers, Web server, and a proxy server to name a few. Each of these roles is often run on individual systems. If you think one server per role and then you have redundancy built into the system that can equate to a huge amount of servers. Currently the company has a dedicated physical server for each role, application or in some instances it has multiple applications sharing one physical server. The space needed to house all these different servers is huge and costly. Another factor that has to be taken into account is the size of the company. The larger a company is the more servers are needed to be able to serve all the different employees that access these servers (Server Virtualization: Branching Out of the Data Center, n.d.).
Solution
Virtualization can help the company save money in more than one way. It can allow the company to host a dedicated virtual server for each application all hosted on one physical server. Running this scenario allows the isolation of applications from each other. It increases the availability of the application while providing stronger access control and lowering the cost to the company. The company could host a dedicated virtual server for each application hosted on multiple physical servers. This scenario provides all the previous listed abilities while also providing improved application availability and a greater ability at disaster recovery (Server Virtualization: Branching Out of the Data Center, n.d.).
Network
Current Network
The different servers that the company uses at this time are running its own operating system and the application that is its primary function. This equates to the fact that the company has many servers in operation and then you have the added fact the company has multiple servers preforming the same task for redundancy (see figure 1). The company is expanding; adding additional servers to the network is a costly expense that the company can ill afford in these economic times.
Proposed Network
In the proposed network, each server will have its storage, memory, and CPU’s upgrade. With each server having these upgrade they will better be set to run the virtualization software. When each server is running the virtualization software it will be capable of having several different virtual machines running at the same time (see figure 2). With this configuration we can increase the amount of servers within the company but not have to increase the amount of actual hardware servers.
(figure 1) (figure 2)
Current Network Structure Proposed Network Structure
Theory
The theories that will be covered in this portion of the document will cover social theories and the analytic theories. The concepts that will be covered are the technological imperative, strategic choice, social construction of technology, integrated perspective, and critical theory. Virtualization and these theories will be combined to discuss the decision-making for the use of virtualization within the company. They will also be used to describe some of the benefits that can be garnered from the use of virtualization.
Technological Imperative Theory
The concept behind the technological imperative theory is that new technology is expected and important. The new technology must be designed, built and employed by companies. It also covers the idea that technology will get to the point where human innovation will not be enough and that technology will be the basis for any new technology (Technology imperative, n.d.). Dwayne Phillips’ idea on the theory of technological imperative states “states that if a new technology exists, we need it. Logic and business school lessons don’t matter” (Phillips, 2010). If we use this theory in conjunction with virtualization then it is a must that the company changes over to the use of virtualization. The theory points out that the technology is a need for the company to continue in business. If the company wants to still be in the mainstream of the business world then virtualization is the only way to go because of the need for this technology. This technology will keep the company in the mainstream of the business world within its field of expertise.
Strategic Choice Theory
The strategic choice theory is based on the decisions a company makes about the future of a company. The decisions made are based on the pressures and influences of its customers and the business world. When thinking of this theory and how it can be used in the determination on the use of virtualization within the company. The company must gather all the pertinent facts about the problem. The company also needs to look at all alternative choices that it is faced with to determine the best course of action that will benefit the company (Strategic Choice, n.d.). These choices will need to determine the most cost savings, reduction in operating costs and the generation of profits for the company.
Social Construction of Technology Theory
This theory can be defined as “the interactive sociotechnical process that shapes all forms of technology” (Paisey, 2012). This theory views technology and its development as an interactive process between the designers, developers and the relevant groups that will use the technology. The social construction of technology theory would have the company, the IT department and the end users of the technology in discussions on the technology and its benefits to the company. The company executives would still hold the final decision on the disposition of the purchase installation and use of the virtualization. In this thought the end users would have their say as to how the use of virtualization would affect the performance and productivity of their jobs. The IT department would have their says as to the maintenance of the virtualized servers and how this would either hamper of increase their abilities to perform other tasks since they would have more time for these tasks. The executives would use all this knowledge to make the final decision on the purchasing of the virtualization software and the server upgrades necessary to run the virtualization software (Paisey, 2012).
An Integrated Perspective Theory
The integrated perspective has to be defined by its parts. Integrated is defined as “join with something else” (Integrated, 2014) and perspective is defined as “the relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole” (Perspective, 2014). If these two definitions are combined it would be the relationship of the parts as joined to make a whole item. When you looked at the combined definition as it would pertain to virtualization within the company it is a definition that almost the opposite description of virtualization. Virtualization takes one item and makes many from it but it has the capability of the many. Virtualization takes one server and you install the virtual software and are able to create many servers on the one server. This will allow the company to have many servers for the lesser price of just one server.
Critical Theory
The critical theory is defined as “ a theoretical approach which stresses that all knowledge is historical and biased and thus claims to objective knowledge are illusory” (Critical Theory, 2014). This theory as used with virtualization is that any knowledge of this technology is biased because it is historical and there is no new evidence to support any claims on the virtualization technology. If the company uses this theory it will not trust any information provided to the executives. The executives would have to use the idea that the information is old and outdated and less likely to be valuable information and this would make the decision to use virtualization harder if not impossible. If this is used most likely the upgrade of the existing servers and the installation of virtualization will not happen because the one that will make the final decision will not trust the provided information and discount the ability of the software to help the company.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusions
It has been shown that the use of virtualization can help the company. It was shown that there are problems for the growing company and the need to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profit is a must within this growing company. It was also shown what the use of virtualization can do for the company by being able to use one server to replicate many servers. Virtualization was discussed and combined with different networking technology theories and how it would impact the decision-making process and the use of virtualization within the company.
Recommendations
The company wants to cut cost, conserve revenue and increase profit. The use of virtualization will benefit the company because it will reduce the cost of purchasing more servers, it will allow the company to have more working servers without having to increase the workforce there by conserving revenue, and it will allow the company to be able to expand its ability to service more customers so the company can increase profits. In the end it is shown that the use of virtualization would benefit the company and should be implemented as soon as the company can fund the venture.
References
Connor, D. (2007, August) Survey: Most IT Departments Use Virtualization http://www.cio.com/article/130351/Survey_Most_IT_Departments_Use_Virtualization
Conroy, S. P. (2011, August) History of Virtualization http://www.everythingvm.com/content/history-virtualization
Critical Theory (2014) Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+theory
Integrated (2014) The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/integrated
Integrated Perspective (2013) Guanzi Institute: http://www.guanzi.com/glossary/Integrated_Perspective
Paisey, F. (2012, Feb) Social Construction of Technology http://www.slideshare.net/fpaisey/social-construction-of-technology-11490973
Perspective (2014) The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/integrated
Phillips, D. (2010, June) The Technology Imperative http://dwaynephillips.net/workingup/2010/06/the-technological-imperative/
Press Release (2010, September) Gartner.com: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1440213
Rouse, M. (2010, December) Virtualization, Tech Target: http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/definition/virtualization
Server Virtualization: Branching Out of the Data Center. (n.d.) http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/services-ready-engine-sre-modules/white_paper_c11-611291.html
Soni, M. (2012, December) The History Of Virtualization, http://cloudtweaks.com/2012/12/the-history-of-virtualization/
Strategic Choice (n.d.) http://www.smartbiz.nu/pages.asp?PageID=56&Base=1&MenuID=93
Technology imperative (n.d.) PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/64252/technology-imperative