AppZero and Hypervisors
AppZero and hypervisors
- AppZero works with any hypervisor = AppZero is hypervisor-agnostic
- AppZero VAAs can move from hypervisor to hypervisor without alteration
- AppZero VAAs work on both physical and virtual machines
Performance
The use of hypervisor technology has an impact on overall system performance. The use of AppZero VAAs has negligible impact on overall system performance.
Hypervisors do a great job of provisioning servers, but not of provisioning server applications:
- Hypervisor approach: Virtual machines (VM) have the entire OS hosted as a guest in a dedicated virtual environment. This approach completely isolates one OS from another, but proliferation of VM and OS instances can create a management challenge.
- Hypervisor approach: Virtual appliances (VA) package an application with an OS
This approach virtualizes the complexity and cost of application configuration and maintenance. The interdependencies between an application and its underlying infrastructure, introduced at installation, remain as rigid in the VA world as in the world of physical servers. VAs inherit the performance overhead of the hypervisor approach. Additionally, Microsoft licensing becomes a cost consideration when any part of an OS is incorporated into a VA. The economics of maintaining server-side applications are not positively changed in this model.
- AppZero approach: Virtual application appliances (VAA) package an application without an OS
This approach completely decouples an application from the OS (Linux, Solaris, Windows) and its underlying infrastructure, eliminating OS licensing issues. AppZero designed its product specifically for the virtualization of server-side applications.
Applications can be maintained/updated in isolation from other execution elements such as web server and database engine. The reverse is true as well. VAAs, pre-installed and pre-configured, provide applications that are up and running - completely portable from server to server whether physical or virtual, in the datacenter, hosted, or in the cloud. VAAs significantly improve the economics of deploying and maintaining server-side application virtualization.
- AppZero can increase server consolidation ratios on any hypervisor and reduce VM sprawl
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