Loading ...Call me a technology purist, but I love when things are simple. After all, that’s supposed to be what use technology does, right? Make our lives more productive, make our businesses more efficient and streamline processes that previously couldn’t be done manually (or if they could – took lots of effort). That’s exactly why I’m excited about VMware’s Fault Tolerance technology. As you may have seen last week, VMware introduced its vSphere 4 cloud computing OS, and the Fault Tolerance feature is a big part of this new solution.
As described by VMware, Fault Tolerance helps provide continuous availability with a simple ‘click of a button’ – something that gives businesses with virtualized data center environments peace of mind. At AMD, we have been thinking about continuous availability and disaster recovery for years and architected our AMD OpteronTM processors, in part, to address this. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may know we’ve focused this effort on the hardware side with our live migration capabilities (something we specifically call Extended Migration) across all of our processor generations, dating back to single-core Opteron processors! But why is this important? Well, with an AMD Opteron processor-based data center, an IT manager can dynamically move VMs across physical servers and in the case of a hardware failure-do so without interrupting services to users. VMware takes this one step further with Fault Tolerance software that is designed to provide even more reliability.
What is so interesting about VMware’s Fault Tolerance is that it works to create a “shadow instance” of the virtual machine that is in lockstep with the primary instance (not surprisingly, part of VMware’s vLockstep technology). We have worked with VMware to make sure our hardware provides a solid foundation for their technology, and are extremely excited at the value it can offer our customers. More than anything, it addresses the number one concern we hear from customers when they consider virtualization: how reliable is this technology? What happens if there is an earthquake or a pipe bursts in my office? How do I ensure my data is protected?
Of course, it’s natural to be a bit hesitant at the thought of virtualizing your most critical business applications, but it’s my job to let customers know these risks are addressed with virtualization. Unique hardware features like AMD Extended Migration and software like VMware’s Fault Tolerance not only help your trusty IT manager (and you) sleep better at night, but also help make their job easier by including reliability features directly on the hardware and software. Its complex technology made simple. I like the sound of that.
is a Product Marketing Director at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Margaret Lewis, director, AMD commercial software and solutions
Margaret Lewis
@margaretjlewis
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#1 by Surya - April 27th, 2009 at 03:25
It seems that virtualization will help entertainment industries especially digital content providers with their data centers could keep up with demand for their customers. Fluctuated bandwidth will hampered them and sometimes reduced their Quality of Services (QoS). Customers wants that they can download the digital contents with highest bit rate available with their broadband connections. This is a challenge in era high definition media. Reliable stream of High definition media could only be achieved using high bandwidth broadcast like digital television. I doubt using internet connections can achieve same QoS like digital broadcast when they must provides reliable services to millions of customers at the same time. This could became worse when internet services provider limit their user bandwidth usages.
#2 by Surya - April 27th, 2009 at 04:05
Sorry for my English.