Lanamark Desktop and Server Capacity Planning For Multi Hypervisor Comparisons
April 7th, 2009 | 
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Capacity Planning for virtual infrastructure is a topic I’ve covered before. Discussing the tools to conduct the analysis is almost not worth posting about since the majority are only available for the professional services partner and not the end customer (the main vmetc.com audience). However, Lanamark’s Server Virtualization Design Module and today’s announcement of Lanamark’s Desktop Analysis Pack for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is worth mentioning.
Why? Because I am not aware of another virtualization capacity planning tool that can monitor a company’s existing desktops, physical and virtual servers and then provide a comparison of consolidation scenarios across Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, Virtual Iron, and VMware ESX.
Lanamark now appears to fill a current capacity planning gap for the following scenarios:
- Companies looking at implementing / migrating to virtualization hosts other than VMware ESX or Microsoft Hyper-V (each with their own capacity planning and TCO analysis tools).
- Companies undecided on which virtualization platform to use and want to explore scenarios with an independent partner of multiple vendors.
- Companies needing customized capacity planning for virtual desktop infrastructure (beyond adapting server virtualization capacity planning tools to vdi scenarios).
The remainder of this post contains details about Lanamark’s benefits both for server capacity planning first and then desktops.
Lanamark Server Capacity Planning
More info from the Lanamark February 17 press release:
“The Server Virtualization Design Module offers advanced optimization capabilities for server configuration and workload placement, determines the number of virtualization software licenses required and facilitates planning of physical-to-virtual (P2V) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) conversions. It allows what-if scenarios to be compared side-by-side with comprehensive TCO calculations and enables channel partners to build end-to-end solutions with server, storage, software and service components. The module supports servers, blade enclosures, storage arrays and HBAs from Brocade, Dell, EMC, Emulex, Hitachi, HP, IBM, NetApp, QLogic, Sun Microsystems and Xiotech.”
Lanamark’s web site previews high level details of what the Server Module provides in it’s consolidation comparisons:
- Design end-to-end server virtualization solutions across platforms from Citrix, Microsft, Parallels, Virtual Iron and VMware.
- Determine the number of virtualization software licenses required for each platform.
- Explore what-if scenarios for servers, storage arrays and HBAs from leading vendors.
- Compare scenarios side-by-side using TCO, carbon footprint and power metrics.
- Share and reuse solutions, scenarios and reports across projects.
- Optimize server configuration and workload placement.
It seems very possible that Lanamark’s capacity planning and TCO results could be the cause of a future (heated – aren’t they always!) debate between hypervisor vendors. If my interpretation of what Lanamark can do is correct, then I will be surprised if sooner or later someone doesn’t use it in a public competitive comparison!
Lanamark Desktop Capacity Planning
More information from today’s press release:
“The Desktop Analysis Pack distinguishes desktops from laptops to identify mobile users and determines associations between workstations and external devices such as monitors, printers and scanners. It leverages the Lanamark Software Intelligence (LSI) technology to recognize software applications installed versus ones actually used across the enterprise. The combined information about desktop hardware and software enables channel partners to identify desktops most suitable for virtualization, determine what type of thin client devices would be most appropriate for end users and recommend how software applications should be allocated to minimize licensing costs.”
Mark Angelo, Lanamark CEO, further described VDI specific capacity planning benefits to me in an email:
The Desktop Analysis Pack is designed to accelerate desktop virtualization projects by providing comprehensive analytics around desktops and laptops:
- Identify candidate desktops for virtualization
- Distinguish laptops from desktops to identify mobile users
- Determine associations between workstations and external devices such as monitors, printers and scanners
- Recognize software applications installed versus ones actually used to determine which applications should be made available to end users and reduce software licensing costs and lower the risk of non-compliance.
Also, the Desktop Analysis Pack can be used in conjunction with the Server Virtualization Design Module (SVDM) to design virtual desktop infrastructure solutions across leading virtualization and server hardware platforms. We have also added thin client devices from leading vendors such as Wyse to our repository so that they can be included in the end-to-end solutions designed with the SVDM.
Check out Lanamark.com for more about professional services offered to assist companies planning migration and consolidation to virtual infrastructure.
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