Server virtualization technology and its latest trends

IT systems have become increasingly larger and more complex, thus making it more difficult to build an optimal IT infrastructure in today's rapidly changing business environment. Server virtualization represents a base technology for addressing this problem. It enables the flexible construction of virtual servers with almost no hardware limitations, and consequently reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) and makes it easier to use virtual servers in the changing business environment. Fujitsu supplies server virtualization technology in the form of the Virtual Machine Function for the PRIMEQUEST mission-critical IA server and PRIMERGY PC server. The Virtual Machine Function is based on Xen open-source technology. This paper describes the background behind and latest trends in server virtualization, and outlines Fujitsu's Virtual Machine Function and the Xen architecture. It then describes our development of various technologies for mission-critical systems. These technologies include large memory management, I/O processing optimization and enhancement, and RAS enhancement. This paper concludes by describing our future plans for server virtualization.