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SQL
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VIRTUALIZATION

V
irtualization is no longer just the purview of
the large enterprise: Today many small and
mid-sized businesses are turning to virtualiza-
tion to reduce costs, reduce energy consump-
tion and get a better handle on their IT re-
sources. For many of these companies it helps
that Microsoft now has some skin in the game.
If you’re a small or mid-sized business think-
ing about virtualization, particularly in the
world of Microsoft, it makes sense to upgrade
your database servers as well. This article ex-
plains why to upgrade and provides several
examples of companies that have successfully
made the move.
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SQL
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Thinking About Virtualization?

Don’t Forget The Database
The issues around virtualization for small and mid- sasters and other unplanned
sized businesses have changed dramatically during disruptions.
the past couple of years. The big question used to be: These benefits are finding a
Why do it? Now many small and mid-sized business- welcoming audience among
es want to know: How quickly can I get it done? businesses in today’s challeng-
Microsoft is helping to fuel this trend. By offering ing economic environment,
Hyper-V as part of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft where many companies are
has made it simpler than ever for small and mid- trying to deliver greater per-
sized businesses to go to virtual server environments. formance with fewer resourc-
For small and mid-sized businesses the benefits es. The fact that Microsoft
of virtualization come down to utilizing current now has some skin in the vir-
technology to reduce costs without taking on major tualization game is certainly
increases in staffing or overhead. Among the advan- helping to pique interest.
tages of virtualization are: “Among small and mid-sized
"REDUCED COSTS "REDUCED ENERGY businesses, what we’re starting
through server consolida- CONSUMPTION to save money to see is that a lot more com-
tion. This often helps improve (and be good corporate panies are accepting virtu-
performance as well, since the citizens). alization as the norm,” says
organization will also upgrade "GREATER MANAGEABIL- Rick Heiges, a senior solu-
the power and quality of its ITY, improved backup, greater tions consultant at Scalability
servers to increase stability redundancy and an enhanced Experts. “By using Windows
and scalability. ability to recover from di- Server 2008 with Hyper-V

built-in, it’s a lot easier for
virtualization to grow in small
to medium businesses. People
trust Microsoft and the atti-
tude is, ‘If Hyper-V is here, I
may as well try it. If it’s built-
in anyway, I may as well give
it a try and save some money
that way.’”
For those small or mid-sized
businesses that plan to take
the virtualization route – par-
ticularly those doing so with
Microsoft Windows Server
2008 – it is also important that
they look at upgrading their
database servers to Microsoft
SQL Server 2008 to gain the
most benefit out of their de-
ployment. “If you’re going to
use Windows Server 2008 for
virtualization, it makes sense
to upgrade to SQL Server 2008
as well,” Heiges notes.
In fact, in some instances
making the move to Windows
Server 2008 could be a strong
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SQL
Server
2008
Upgrade
Series
VIRTUALIZATION
impetus for companies to turn server platform. They can get
to SQL Server 2008. “One of some dedicated SQL servers
the great features of Windows and don’t have to pay extra
Server 2008 is Hyper-V,” says for virtualization. This starts
Allan Hirt of Megahirtz, a da- to make sense in terms of
tabase consulting firm based cost savings. The combina-
in Boston. “Maybe the orga- tion of Windows Server 2008
nization doesn’t have a large and SQL Server 2008 can be
SQL database, but it gets a more compelling story than
virtualization built into the just SQL Server 2008 alone.”
DO VIRTUALIZATION RIGHT:
UPGRADE TO SQL SERVER 2008
There are many benefits in upgrading to SQL Server
2008 as an organization moves toward a virtual
environment. As the leading-edge database platform
offered by Microsoft, SQL Server 2008 has been
designed with features that recognize and support
virtualization efforts by small and mid-sized busi-
nesses as well as larger enterprises. Among the key
features for virtualization are:
"POLICY-BASED MAN- is a feature that is available
AGEMENT. This enables an on both the Standard Edition
organization to manage all of and Enterprise Edition of SQL
its SQL Server 2008 instances Server 2008. With Policy-
from a single location. This Based Management, the busi-
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SQL
Server
2008
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VIRTUALIZATION

ness can create and centrally Server in multiple virtual ma- predict database performance
manage policies for security, chines on the same physical and prevent performance from
object naming conventions computer. This generally ap- being negatively effected by
and database options. In plies to mid-sized businesses resource-intense applications
a virtualized environment, with more than 75 users or or processes.
Policy-Based Management devices.
also reduces the time it takes " HIGH AVAILABILITY. Mi-
to deploy new servers and" RESOURCE GOVERNOR. crosoft recently announced
applications. This is also a feature that is SQL Server support for Guest
in the Enterprise Edition and Failover Clustering in a vir-
" REDUCED LICENSING targeted more at the mid-sized tual environment. This means
COSTS. SQL Server 2008 business as opposed to the that, in the event of an un-
planned downtime
“Maybe the organization doesn’t of a SQL Server
have a large SQL database, but it gets instance running in
virtualization built into the server a virtual machine,
platform. They can get some dedicated another SQL Server
SQL servers and don’t have to pay instance running in
extra for virtualization.” a different virtual
machine can come
Enterprise Edition enables small business. Resource Gov- online instantaneously. An-
businesses to reduce licensing ernor is a tool that allows the other benefit of this feature is
costs when hosted on Win- business to allocate resources the reduction in the planned
dows Server 2008. With the to those applications that downtime of the server, with
Enterprise Edition, a single need them the most. By us- the ability to do rolling patch-
SQL Server license is valid for ing Resource Governor, busi- es and updates to the guest
unlimited instances of SQL nesses can more accurately operating system.
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SQL
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business continuity across the

SUCCESS STORIES IN VIRTUALIZATION school district. One of the key
Although the combination of Windows Server benefits cited by the district is
the ability to virtualize trans-
2008 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2008 has been
actional applications, most
around for less than two years, there are already
of which are based on SQL
many organizations – large and small – that are
Server. Two key applications
using the technology to deploy virtual computing
– called InfoCenter and Versa-
environments that have delivered on the promises
Trans – are already running on
of reduced costs and improved operations. Here are SQL Server 2008, according to
several examples of successful deployments, provid- the district.
ed by the users in cooperation with Microsoft: The district estimates it has
" BRICK TOWNSHIP BOARD Server 2007. The district also already saved approximately
OF EDUCATION: This is a purchased a Dell EqualLogic $30,000 in electrical costs.
school district that serves iSCSI storage array to store all The goal is to virtualize ap-
11,000 students in Ocean of its virtual hard disks. One proximately 90 percent of the
County, N.J. The district storage array is in the board district’s servers, accounting
started by migrating six vir- administration building and for about 20 physical ma-
tual machines to Hyper-V and another is in a high school chines. The district estimates
then deployed a two-node across town. it will save about $52,000 a
cluster hosting Hyper-V with According to Microsoft, the year in electrical costs and
a connection between them school district is already ben- another $80,000 in hardware
for failover. The district has efiting from reduced data cen- elimination costs. The district
virtualized 14 applications, ter costs, improved hardware also claims it has reduced its
including Windows Server Up- and consolidation, streamlined rack space by approximately
date Services and SharePoint server management and better 50 percent.
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VIRTUALIZATION

" SERVICEU: ServiceU is a designed for virtualization. solidate its IT infrastructure

Memphis-based company that So, when ServiceU moved to a by eliminating 43 percent of
provides software-as-a-service virtualization environment, servers. It also claims it has
(SaaS) that helps compa- it was able to deploy the new been able to cut power con-
nies plan, manage and run environment in just three sumption by about 50 percent
events. Its business is built weeks. The company by adopting energy efficient
on SQL Server and it was an claims it has been able to con- servers.
early adopter of SQL Server
2008. Among the reasons it " UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: The physical servers. According to
upgraded to SQL Server 2008 university’s IT department has Microsoft, it is currently run-
were some of the new features a staff of 10 people who sup- ning 27 production virtual ma-
chine guests – which
When ServiceU moved to a would otherwise have
virtualization environment, it was been physical servers
able to deploy the new environment in – on three physical
just three weeks. It also claims it has hosts. The university
been able to cut power consumption claims it is saving 40
by about 50 percent. percent by purchas-
ing two Datacenter
including data compression, port the university’s Windows- edition licenses compared
security and performance based infrastructure. Among to purchasing 11 individual
improvements. The company the challenges faced by the IT Windows Server licenses.
looked to virtualization as an team were limited server rack The university is also reaping
opportunity to simplify server space, A/C cooling thresholds tremendous savings in energy
management and reduce costs. and power. By migrating to vir- costs: It claims energy savings
It already had Dell PowerEdge tual machines, the university of about 80 percent, according
R805 servers, which were has decreased the number of to Microsoft. !