VKernel Software Optimizes Virtual Infrastructures

As IT organizations look to implement the second wave of server virtualization programs, many are finding they have still not achieved the full cost savings they had anticipated. VKernel Corporation, a provider of virtualization management and optimization software, announced the new VKernel Optimization Pack to help organizations achieve maximum ROI from their virtualization projects

VKernel’s new Optimization Pack includes three powerful applets, Wastefinder, Rightsizer, and Inventory that help users improve the efficiency of their virtual infrastructures. The new applets allow organizations to run more virtual machines (VMs) with the same hardware, maximize the utilization of infrastructure resources, reclaim terabytes of wasted storage, reduce VM sprawl, and assure optimal VM performance.

“Based on our research, the average organization runs five to seven VMs per processor while the real ROI from virtualization occurs at densities of 10 to 12 VMs,” said Alex Bakman, founder and CEO of VKernel. “Our products help users achieve the optimal balance of resource utilization and VM performance so they can safely achieve these ROI goals. Beta users of our Wastefinder applet, for example, reclaimed between 15 and 40 percent of expensive wasted storage resources. That’s tens of thousands of dollars in savings for an average $5,000 investment.”

Optimization Pack Details
A successful virtualization project balances proper resource allocations and utilizations with VM performance and cost per VM. With the Optimization Pack, VKernel enables organization to rapidly achieve their goals by providing a very affordable and simple-to-use toolset. Delivered as a virtual appliance, deployment is instant and users immediately begin solving their critical needs.

The VKernel Optimization Pack
includes three powerful management applets:

• Wastefinder – quickly finds where resource capacity (CPU, memory, and storage) are being wasted in the virtual infrastructure. By identifying zombie VMs, expired snapshots, and other wasteful consumers, users can reclaim expensive capacity to optimize virtual environments and achieve a better, faster ROI.
• VM Rightsizer – a simple tool for tuning your VMs with the right amount of resources (CPU, memory, and storage) to drive maximum VM densities without impacting performance. Rightsizer is unique in its ability to make recommendations and automatically implement changes to find improperly allocated resources and optimally configure VMs.
• Inventory – automatically collects important information about all VMs in the virtual infrastructure and creates a detailed inventory report showing VM name, created by and when, resource allocations, and much more. The inventory is continually updated to match the dynamic environment and is searchable by different criteria to quickly find specific information.

“EMA is finding that a majority of enterprises have virtualized about 25 percent of their environment, and have not achieved their full ROI potential,” said Andi Mann, VP of Research, Systems & Storage Management at EMA. “Our research shows that by using capacity management to optimize the virtual infrastructure customers can achieve greater VM density, and higher resource utilization while achieving SLAs. This is why EMA believes that virtual infrastructure optimization is an important discipline to ensuring achievement of key virtualization goals.”

VKernel currently supports VMware ESX and vSphere and plans to support Microsoft Hyper-V (later this year) as well as Citrix XEN Server. The company believes that a heterogeneous capacity management and optimization offering will be increasingly important as the enterprise virtual infrastructure becomes a mix of hypervisor platforms.

VKernel will be exhibiting at VMworld taking place Aug. 31 – Sept. 3 in the Moscone Center, San Francisco.

Pricing and Availability
The VKernel Optimization Pack is currently available in a bundle with Capacity Analyzer 4.1 for $399 per CPU socket including the first year of maintenance and support. Subscription pricing is also offered at $179 annually per CPU socket including maintenance and support. A fully-functional 14-day free trial of Capacity Analyzer and the Optimization Pack are available to download on the company Web site.