As we bring the "Virtualizing Agile PLM" series to a close I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss the why's around virtualizing as opposed to the "hows" that Rodney covered quite capably in the 4 part series. The movie Jurassic Park is a cautionary tale about technology. Many companies seem to share a fear of new technology. There is comfort in familar ways and the leading edge can often be the bleeding edge. As Jeff Goldblum so eloquently stated in the movie, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should". In the case of virtualizing an enterprise software product like Agile PLM you can and definitely should consider it. We have been espousing the virtues of virtualization for some time but percentage wise significantly fewer small and mid-size companies have embraced the technology. A staggering percentage of Fortune 500 companies leverage some form of virtualization but medium and small businesses have lagged a bit to jump on the bandwagon. My personal observation is that small and medium size businesses don't have the same level of staffing in their IT organizations and that their IT challenges in areas that virtualization addresses aren't quite as urgent as larger companies. The value proposition for large companies is quite compelling but as you get into smaller companies it muddies a bit. I would argue that for general IT this may be true but for getting the most out of enterprise software products like Oracle's Agile PLM, Siemens's Teamcenter, PTC's Windchill PDMLink, Oracle EBS, and SAP virtualization offers clear advantages over traditional operating system (OS) and server bound approaches. This blog will highlight some of the advantages of utilizing a virtualized environment when running enterprise software solutions.
1. Virtualization fully leverages today's hardware platforms
Cable Porter
As Intel and AMD continue their arms race customers benefit from more powerful servers. Quad Core processors, faster harddrives, RAID, and SAN's all have put hardware in a place that for less than ten thousand dollars a medium size company can purchase a server that will easily meet their needs to run a PLM or ERP software solution. Unfortunately they often discover that the software vendors have not caught up to the OS and hardware vendors and that they are forced to run older operating systems that fail to leverage today's 64 bit architectures and limit the amount of RAM that can be accessed. Moreover many of these software products have multiple components that do not coexist well on the same operating system and would be better off installed on other machines requiring addition hardware purchases. Products like VMWare allow clients to set up and run multiple virtual machines (VM's) on the same hardware. Using tools like VmWare's ESX companies can load a virtualization architecture directly on to the server without requiring a base OS. This increases the performance of the virtual machines dramatically and allows better utilization of the server's capacity. Typically applications like Agile and SAP periodically spike usage but rarely tax the full capability of a server. You still are able to segment the application server from the database and file server but you can do it on one machine instead of three. Obviously this saves money but as the heading states it allows you to get all the value out today's robust hardware platforms instead of underutilizing the equipment.
2. Software installation and setup is much easier
Installing enterprise software can get pretty involved. Depending upon the product you typically load a database like Oracle, an application server and possibly a number of other components as well. You might have patches you need to load and you have to ensure whatever components you install are compatible with the OS on your server. If you have a test environment (which you should) you end up having to do this installation multiple times which takes time and effort. Virtualization allows you to templatize virtual machines and use them over again which really speeds things up. Service providers can set up VM's to load quickly which should shorten set up times and lower cost. Having a consistent virtual machine with an OS optimized for loading enterprise software can dramatically improve the installation process. We have spent numerous occasions debugging clients IT environments to try an determine why PLM and PDM software won't run correctly only to discover a missing patch or virus software or some other unaccounted for variable that interfered with the loading of software. VM's standardize the environment making it much easier to install software.
3. Automated creation of test environment
I touched on this one earlier. Test environments for PLM can be considered a luxury at smaller companies. Sometimes it's a stretch to even come up with the needed hardware for the production environment much less another system for testing. If you have PLM and ERP getting test systems for both can be an even taller order. On top of the hardware you have the level of effort to configure and setup the machines. The end result is that a majority of the under one hundred million dollar customers I work with rarely have a sufficient test environment. This can be a problem when it comes to upgrades and system modifications. These enterprise applications are mission critical and a change to permissions or workflows needs to be fully evaluated before being rolled out to the entire company. Upgrades need to be checked to make sure they are not going to create issues with customization or configuration options. It is also important to make sure new software will run properly and at expected speeds. None of this can be done without a test environment. Most companies respond by locking their systems down and rarely if ever upgrading or making any major changes other just roll the dice and hope for the best. Neither of these approaches is desirable. A virtualized environment eliminates the need for additional hardware and cloning of systems allows for easy copying from production to testing and vice versa making a test environment almost a "no-brainer".
4. Simplified environment for backups and testing of backups
How secure do you feel about your current backup system? I would be willing to wager a large sum of money that very few people would be willing to delete their production environment confident in the fact that their backup copy was ok. Hope is not a strategy when it comes to backups. I know this first hand from an experience with a client and from a firsthand episode. We had a client inadvertently overwrite their production database with an empty database and discover that their backup script had been disabled. Oops! We recently had a power failure at our own offices that lasted longer than our UPS system. Once the UPS was exhausted one of the servers crashed. We discovered that our backups were taking too long so they never completed. Fortunately the server had RAID so once we replaced one of the failed drives we were able to recover but we should have known better. Testing backups is mandatory but on traditional architecture it is challenging to do. Products like VMWare come with tools that allow you to back up entire virtual machines and once you have done this to do incremental backups of the vm's. Testing them is as easy as bringing them back up and making sure they are up to date. This is much less time consuming and therefore much more likely to happen. The ease of setting up and testing backups of virtual machines is probably one of the most compelling reasons to consider adoption of this technology.
5. Disaster Recovery
The title says it all, recovery from disaster. Whether that disaster is fire, flood, theft, earthquake or most likely hardware failure virtualization makes the recovery and the preparations for recovery more viable. In an ideal world you would have weekly or daily off site backups and there are a number of services available through the web that can automate this process and have nothing to do with virtualization. Most companies eye these services with well deserved caution. We had a client that allowed an offsite back service access to their environment as a trial and several weeks later they had a mysterious data corruption issue. The company helpfully offered to sell them back their backup. I am not saying these types of solutions are always suspect but they are fairly intrusive. The other issue is what do you restore? If you are backing up dmp files for your enterprise applications if you have a catastrophe of some kind you are going to have to reinstall all of your application software which will take a while. VM's are self contained. They can be installed on any hardware as long as you maintain your network domain structure. Restoring a VM will take a fraction of the time it would take to reload back up files and all of the accompanying applications.
6. High Availability for a song
Historically high availability (HA) and fault tolerant solutions were cost prohibitive for small and mid size companies. Financial institutions and other transaction intensive companies used this technology to try and minimize or eliminate down time due to system failures. VMWare has started packaging HA in their small business packages making this option attainable for companies not named Chase or American Express. HA solutions allow you to run a mirrored version of your enterprise solution live on another computer so that if the production machine fails you can immediately switch over to the backup system eliminating downtime. This is more than most companies need but having this type of redundancy can certainly pay off if you experience hardware failures. As PLM and ERP become more integrated into company infrastructure I suspect more companies will leverage this technology.
7. Elimination of Geographical Dependencies for Servers
There are a number of technologies that allow data replication but ultimately you are still forced to house your servers at your facilities. Cloud computing and hosting solutions can allow a company to eliminate the need to house information but it creates a complex dependency that is difficult to manage. Virtualizing servers gives companies portability and flexibility when determining where they want to house their servers. They can effectively manage their environments all over the world without having to house servers in a physical location. As Rodney's article, "Agile PLM in the Cloud-Dream or Reality?" earlier this week indicated the jury is still out on this option for running enterprise software. We are studying it closely and will be reporting on our results comparing locally hosted vm's to those on clouds. Ultimately this could allow companies to maximize value through their structure and location and not require employees to congregate in a building with servers. Obviously bandwidth and infrastructure will play a role but virtualizing servers puts you in a optimal position to leverage this trend.
Hopefully our Virtualizing Agile PLM series has provided you with useful information that will let you assess for yourself the viability of applying this technology to enterprise software. Performance is always the biggest concern when exchanging the traditional approach for vm's. We have found that using a virtual environment has allowed us to maximize our ability to work with multiple environments and to be responsive to our clients. It has reduced our dependency on physical offices and allowed us to more effectively support our widespread customer base. I suspect that companies that adopt this approach will reduce IT overhead and hardware cost while improving the reliability of their environments giving them better options for back up and data recovery while more effectively leveraging their investments in equipment for their enterprise software environments. If Jurassic Park had virtualized their servers and had high availability that hacker and industrial spy never would have been able to sabotage the park so the real moral of the movie is not about the perils of technology but more about using the right technology at the right time. Companies need to adapt or they could find themselves going the way of the dinosaurs.
Special Price!!! Porter-Cable 690LR 11 Amp Fixed-Base Router
Oct 21, 2011 01:24:45
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Porter-Cable 690LR 11 Amp Fixed-Base Router Feature
- 11 Amp motor producing 1-3/4 Peak hp
- 27,500 rpm single speed motor
- Cam lock lever enables simple coarse height adjustments and motor release (fixed base)
- Micrometer depth adjustor accurate to 1/128-inch
- Dust-sealed switch and sealed ball bearing construction enhance tool durability; Precision machined aluminum motor housing and base
Porter-Cable 690LR 11 Amp Fixed-Base Router Overview
Powerful and efficient, the Porter-Cable 690LR Fixed-Base Router utilizes a hefty 1-3/4-horsepower motor to generate an impressive 27,500 rpm for precise cuts. Two ergonomic handles are strategically placed to make routing easy and comfortable, even during all-day jobs. For added convenience, the router includes collets that will accept 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch shank bits.
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 1-3/4-horsepower router makes precision cuts in a wide variety of woods. View larger. |
An essential addition to any woodworking shop, the router owes its robust performance to a single-speed, 11 amp motor that produces 1-3/4 peak horsepower to handle a range of jobs. For consistent, steady performance, the cam-lock lever enables simple coarse height adjustments. A quick fixed-base motor release allows th user to move the motor pack between plunge and d-handle bases (each sold seperately). Accurate to within 1/128 inch, a micro depth adjustor ensures optimum precision.
Rugged Construction with Dust-Sealed Components
As durable as it is efficient, the router features a precision-machined aluminum motor housing and base. A dust-sealed switch and sealed ball-bearing construction guard against wear and tear--even in a hardworking shop or busy jobsite.
Fast Bit Removal and Ergonomic Design for Stability and Comfort
For user-friendly performance and consistency, the router includes an auto-release collet system for easy bit removal. An under-table stop prevents the motor from inadvertantly rotating out of the base, and ergonomic molded grips keep your hands and wrists comfortable, even during extended jobs.
Dimensions and Warranty Information
The 690LR Fixed-Base Router measures 12.0 by 5.50 by 8.62 inches (L x W x H), weighs 8.0 pounds, and is backed by a three-year warranty.
What's in the Box
Router with motor, fixed base, 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch collets, collet wrench, and operating manual.
 Aluminum motor housing and base for stability during operation. |  Auto-release collet system for easy bit removal. |
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