Centralized 'pools' of power

SAN FRANCISCO - IBM announced what it called its virtualization engine, software that it said will allow customers to run as many as ten computer servers per microprocessor. IBM Corp. said the software will be embedded in its non-mainframe servers and would essentially let them "clone" themselves, allowing customers to partition their servers or other systems, as with a mainframe computer.

Virtualization refers to the ability to gather the computing resources of many servers and units of data storage equipment in centralized "pools" of computing power and data that can be easily allocated as demands on the system change.

IBM's Virtualization Engine will also, for the first time, use basic provisioning and management tools from its Tivoli software unit, as well as functions in its WebSphere software product, across a range of IBM systems, the world's largest computer company said.

IBM said that because of the technology, for the first time customers will be able to run as many as 10 servers running the Unix operator system or other non-mainframe systems, off of one microprocessor. A server typically has one or more processors, which are the brains that run a computer.

A four-processor system, using the software technology, could be run like a 40-processor system, using one or multiple operating system types or versions at the same time, IBM said.

IBM isn't alone in offering virtualization software. Rivals Hewlett-Packard Co. with its adaptive enterprise strategy, and Sun Microsystems Inc. with its N1 architecture, also offer software with different levels of virtualization.

Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market research firm Illuminata Inc., said that it was a good start for IBM.

"Each successive version will be more unified, have the parts more aggressively connected, and have fewer visible seams," Eunice wrote in an e-mail. "And that's actually pretty important, given that users are just coming to grips with how to systematically virtualize and simplify their (information technology) infrastructures."

@Reuters