Firms Partner to Open Window on Enterprise Virtualization

GlassHouse Technologies announced on Monday the release of Managed Services for Virtual Environments, a first-of-its-kind suite of managed services. The company broke the news at the VMworld 2008 Solution Exchange in Las Vegas.

GlassHouse, an independent IT infrastructure consulting and services firm, launched its advanced management interface in conjunction with virtualization management software from Tek-Tools Software. The partnership produced a service that provides users with improved visibility, monitoring and reporting of their virtualized IT environments.

It enables users to maximize availability, track system configurations and manage utilization to reduce IT costs, according to the company. Leveraging and analyzing output through the management interface, GlassHouse consultants help customers interpret the data and use capacity and utilization reports to manage their virtual environments.

"We are the first to do this. We are filling a gap in the market. Over the past few years we have seen more companies adopt virtualization," Mitch Northcutt, senior vice president for GlassHouse Technologies, told TechNewsWorld.

No Longer One and the Same

This trend is expected to continue, according to research firm IDC, with the virtualization services market predicted to reach US$11.7 billion by 2011. Managed Services for Virtual Environments is intended to eliminate a barrier to the broader adoption of virtualization technologies by offering users deeper insight into the productivity, capacity and return on investment of their virtual machines, Northcutt said.

GlassHouse has watched companies adopt virtualization strategies in order to reduce costs by cutting back hardware and related expenses. However, many of these companies have no clear picture of exactly how far along they are in achieving that goal at a given time, or exactly what level of expenses they've managed to cut. The industry lacked a visible way to show virtualization users the scale of their expectations and illustrate other management issues related to virtualization, he said.

"It used to be that the same people who managed the physical environment did the virtual environment. But they are not the same thing. Now that we are seeing virtual sprawl, we need a better way to manage it," Northcutt said.

Need More Than Tools?

Various software firms have produced a range of tools to help manage virtual environments. However, users often lack any in-depth knowledge about maximizing the data these tools report.

The partnership of GlassHouse and Tek-Tools is intended to offer virtualization customers a two-level product.

In customer support gatherings, GlassHouse identified the need for more in-depth instruction on how to maintain visibility, measure results and effectively manage the environments. Already providing these capabilities for storage and backup environments, GlassHouse developed a management interface integrated with Tek-Tools' Profiler for VMware (NYSE: VMW) to provide a single-pane view into the virtual environment and a comprehensive service to manage virtualized IT assets.

Level One

The first part of the GlassHouse tool package is the monitoring and reporting service. It gives IT managers data analysis the can inform their decisions when managing the virtual environment.

GlassHouse built a single-pane view on top of the Tek-Tools virtualization management software. Tek-Tools will continue to sell its Profiler management software. GlassHouse modified this tool to work with its own platform.

"Our device sits on their environment to watch over it and report trouble," said Northcutt.

Level Two

The second phase of GlassHouse's new service is a "fully managed system looks at the newer and different virtualization features," Ron Oglesby, director of architecture for virtualization services at GlassHouse, told TechNewsWorld. "It addresses the concerns of enterprise managers about is the host system at optimum efficiency."

For example, the number of patches issued by various software makers is constantly growing -- current statistics show patches are being issued on a monthly basis instead of quarterly, he explained.

The result is a soup-to-nuts approach to running virtualization hosts. GlassHouse will provide the tools to manage cost models and add all the things missing from a standard X86 environment, said Oglesby.

Pricing and Availability

Managed Services for Virtual Environments will be available beginning next week, Oglesby said. GlassHouse is currently working with customers utilizing the management interface and is expanding functionality through other partners.

The pricing structure is not yet finalized, but it will likely be based on the number of hosts. Oglesby expected the final pricing formula to group pricing levels on one to three hosts, four to 10 hosts, and 10 or more hosts.