N1: The Future is Here
by Maria Capucciati
Picture this scenario: you're a data center manager. You have a
virtualized network of servers, disks, networks and applications. When
demand is high in a particular area, resources automatically shift to
meet the need. Your servers run at near-peak utilization. When there is
a problem, the system notifies your administrators, but often the
problem is fixed automatically before they need to take any action.
New applications and services can be provisioned and made available in
days instead of months. And best of all, the costs of managing and
maintaining your data center and its services are slashed dramatically.
Sound like Utopia? Gartner Group calls it "Real-Time Infrastructure,"
Forrester Research calls it "Organic IT," and Sun calls it "N1." Sun
publicly launched its N1 initiative in September 2002, and has been
moving full steam ahead with its strategy. As Business 2.0 said, "This
time, the network really IS the computer."
The first two phases of the N1 road map are virtualization (also called
infrastructure provisioning) and service provisioning. Virtualization
allows for the logical representation of physically distributed
resources, such as storage systems, as one unit. Provisioning allows for
the allocation of those resources to the point of need, and for
automatic configuration of hardware, operating systems, and application
software to meet the need. The third phase of the N1 road map is policy
or service-level automation, whereby service level agreements can be
defined to control the allocation of resources.
In the past year, Sun has steadily advanced its N1 strategy with the
acquisition of three companies: Pirus Networks, Terraspring, and
most recently, CenterRun. The technology from these acquisitions
gives Sun virtualization and provisioning capabilities for storage
systems (Pirus), servers (Terraspring), and services and application
software (CenterRun). In February 2003, Sun released the N1
Provisioning Server Blades Edition, a virtualization and
provisioning solution for the Sun Fire Blade Platform. Sun now
offers the N1 Blades Starter Pack, which combines the Blades
hardware with N1 software and installation from Sun Services.
Related
» The N1 Readiness Kit
» No more sticky notes
Brian Korn, Sun's N1 marketing strategist, discusses a better way to
manage the data center.
» N1 Provisioning Server 3.0 Blades Edition
» Sun Fire Blade Platform
» Services Deliver Sun N1 Architectures and Blade Platforms
» N1 FAQ
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