White

Paper

Extending IT Virtualization
By Brian Babineau

to Database Infrastructure

June, 2011

This ESG White Paper was commissioned by Delphix and is distributed under license from ESG.
2011, Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

White Paper: Extending IT Virtualization to Database Infrastructure 2

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Database Infrastructure Realities ............................................................................................................... 3
Pinpoint the Problem ...............................................................................................................................................3 Slow Provisioning .....................................................................................................................................................4 Operational Costs Increase ......................................................................................................................................5 What is It? ................................................................................................................................................................5 The Benefits .............................................................................................................................................................5 Justifying an Investment ..........................................................................................................................................6 What to Look For .....................................................................................................................................................6 Summary of Evaluation Criteria ...............................................................................................................................7

How Database Virtualization Can Help ....................................................................................................... 5

The Bigger Truth ......................................................................................................................................... 8

All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of the Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at (508) 482-0188.

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White Paper: Extending IT Virtualization to Database Infrastructure 3

Introduction
The priorities of IT executives rarely change: maintain flexibility to support evolving business requirements while operating within tight budgets. What does change is the means by which organizations address these prioritiesa decision best made after taking into account current business objectives, technology trends, and resource constraints. Currently, senior IT leaders are supporting the expansion of virtualization initiatives because these projects help reduce operating expenses, improve asset utilization, cut capital costs, and enable IT agility. IT virtualization abstracts the value of a particular technology or function from its underlying platform. The benefits of abstraction enable organizations to consolidate existing resources and provision new ones quickly. These opportunities are certainly being exploited today; server virtualization efforts are well underway. ESG research estimates that 71% of organizations currently use VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, or other solutions to consolidate CPU resources and automate provisioning of new systems.1 And over 20% of respondents to another ESG survey stated that they were using Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions to reduce support costs while improving provisioning times and reducing security risks.2 The big question for IT leaders is, whats next? This paper discusses why database virtualization is the most logical answer to that question. Best applied to secondary environments such as testing, development, and reporting, database virtualization enables organizations to create more efficient, infrastructure-independent copies of production environments, reducing capital and operating costs while making IT more agile.

Database Infrastructure Realities

Pinpoint the Problem
Todays businesses rely on mission critical database applications such as Human Capital Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Financial Reporting. Because of their importance, these applications have been traditionally run on the most reliable, available, and thus most expensive IT infrastructures. These infrastructures continue to expand because database applications constantly generate new information that must be managed and stored. In fact, ESG estimates that database data is growing at roughly 25% annually.3 Following the conventional wisdom that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, IT leaders are identifying where the highest budget line items are and trying to reduce them. Database application infrastructures often top the list due to associated (database) software licenses, storage systems, servers, and labor. When IT leaders dive into these expenses, however, they often find it is not production application environments that drive up costs, but secondary environments. User testing, development, quality assurance, and reporting environments are typically built on an infrastructure similar to the production environment. With multiple instances of these environments being created on a regular basis, the cost to run and maintain them grows exponentially. As an example, organizations are creating between two and five copies per month for both testing and development (see Figure 2) according to ESG research.4 In fact, over 20% of respondents are creating more than six copies per month to support each of these activities.

1 2

Source: ESG Research Report, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Market Trends, February 2009. Ibid. 3 Source: ESG Research Report, 2007 Database Archiving Survey, December 2007. 4 Ibid.

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White Paper: Extending IT Virtualization to Database Infrastructure 4

Figure 1. Number of Database Copies Organizations Create for Test and Development

On average, how many secondary database instances (copies or clones of the primary) does your organizaKon create monthly for each of the following purposes? (Percent of respondents, N=110)
1 2 to 5 6 to 10 More than 10

User tesing

39%

39%

12%

10%

Development

25%

49%

13%

13%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group 2007.

Making matters worse, a majority of these copies are full replicasas opposed to subsets or snapshotsand they need servers, storage, and management resources. Constantly creating full replicas of production database environments is one the biggest reasons why approximately three quarters of enterprises surveyed by ESG said they were going to spend the same or more on storage hardware in 2009 compared to 2008.5 The storage costs manifest when IT stores all of the copies on high performance, highly available systems similar to production so that they can consolidate more copies onto a single system without impacting test performance. And many times, IT doesnt use all of the capacity within storage systems deployed for test and developmentand wasted capacity equates to wasted money.

Slow Provisioning
Another hidden cost within database application infrastructures has to do with the provisioning time for secondary environments. Development and test environments are commonly associated with upgrading an application or adding a new module to an existing installation. These environments are also used to quickly add new capabilities in response to evolving business dynamics. For example, if an organization expands its operations through acquisition and its Human Capital Management application needs to be enhanced to handle international payroll requirements, IT must quickly implement the modifications so they do not impact the transactions success. The issue is, as stated before, most IT departments create full replicas of production databases to provision secondary environments. The larger the database, the longer the copying process (typically dump/load or backup/restore). In most cases, the actual creation of a secondary environment, along with production refreshes, can take several hours or days. This limits how many environments can be set up and introduces more risk as IT may not be able to adequately complete testing operations. This, in turn, minimizes ITs agility in responding to changing business requirements. Although hard to quantify financially, ITs inability to move at the speed of business can negatively impact top and bottom line growth.

Source: ESG Research Report, 2009 Data Center Spending Intentions Survey, March 2009.

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White Paper: Extending IT Virtualization to Database Infrastructure 5

Operational Costs Increase

Creating secondary database application environments can be its own full-time job if developers and QA engineers constantly need new instances to do their work. There are significant coordination challenges across database administrators and their counterparts in storage and systems. Some database administrators have set up their own scripts to provision copies to be used in secondary environments, while others turn to storage technologies such as snapshots and cloning. These processes are usually successfulbut at a price. Scripts do not always work and storage administrators usually have other responsibilities. With most IT departments trying to maintain current staff levels, dedicating resources to manually provision and manage secondary database application environments can detract from other projects or may simply not be a viable option. Once secondary environments are set up, they not only consume valuable storage and server resources, but data center space and power as well. Some organizations are running out of space within data centers and do not have room to store extra copies. Others are operating on fixed energy budgets, which limit the ability to introduce new systems. These factors can limit the number of secondary environments, which can reduce ITs ability to swiftly respond to the business.

How Database Virtualization Can Help

What is It?
A majority of the problems and costs associated with database applications occur when IT creates secondary environments by making full copies of the production instance in order to mirror production. IT often cannot afford full copies because of the amount of server and storage resources consumed and the amount of time required to complete the replication process. Further, it can be counterproductive to provision secondary environments that do not maintain table relationships, custom scripts, and other unique configuration options. No one wants to waste development and testing time on copies with limited relevanceyet many organizations are forced to do exactly that. Applying the principle of virtualization to these challenges, a database virtualization solution should abstract database data from the underlying storage hardware to create a smaller, space-efficient copy that can be stored anywhere. The abstraction must also ensure that such virtual databases can be provisioned at any point in time through ongoing synchronization with the production environment for development, testing, and other functions.

The Benefits
Database virtualization facilitates two key capabilities. The first is creating space-efficient database copies to be used in secondary environments. The second is storage independence, as the copies can be stored almost anywhere. In turn, these capabilities help companies by: Reducing capital expenditures. Space-efficient database copies minimize the storage footprint needed to support secondary database application environments. Further, the copies can be stored anywhere, allowing customers to deploy more cost effective devices. This particular benefit is often the most compelling, as high performance SAN storage can be over $10,000 per terabyte whereas direct attached systems can be under $3,000 per terabyte. The independence and smaller footprint also allows IT to drive more consolidation with the use of solid state disks, commonly referred to as enterprise flash drives. Customers can store multiple test copies on these extremely fast devices, enabling faster test times without consuming a significant amount of storage capacity. The real savings comes when companies use a combination of less expensive systems with fast, dense devices so they can balance storage costs with faster test and development times. Improving IT agility. Because they are space efficient, virtual databases can be provisioned and refreshed instantaneously. Given that virtual databases do not consume nearly as many storage resources as full copies, IT can create as many as the business needs. Developers, quality engineers, or other constituents

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needing a secondary database application environment do not have to wait to begin their respective operations. Streamlined operations. Virtual databases can leverage the entire database environment, including database software and any tools and scripts used to manage databases. As a result, customers do not have to change anything in their environment. Also, with space-efficient databases in use in secondary environments, there are fewer systems (storage and servers) for IT to power, cool, and manage.

Justifying an Investment
Just like other IT virtualization strategies, database virtualization requires software that manages the abstraction, automates operations, and facilitates hardware independence. However, this cost should be more than offset by the benefits. Even though the reduction in capital expenditures is likely to produce the greatest upfront savings, ESG believes that companies interested in justifying an investment in database virtualization solutions should focus on the operational benefits; according to ESGs research, this is the most important area to reduce costs over the next two years (see Figure 2).6 The good news is that the more secondary database application environments that an organization creates (or wants to create), the bigger the cost savings and operational improvements. Figure 2. Most Important Considerations in Justifying IT Investments Over the Next 24 Months

Which of the following consideraKons do you believe will be most important in jusKfying IT investments to your organizaKons business management team over the next 12-24 months? (Percent of respondents, N=492, mulKple responses accepted)
Reducion in operaional costs Reducion in capital costs Business process improvement Improved security / risk management Speed of payback Improved regulatory compliance Reduced ime-to-market for our products or services
0% 10%

62% 37% 37% 32% 31% 20% 17%

20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group 2009.

What to Look For

When it comes time for IT to evaluate database virtualization solutions, they must make sure that a particular offering does not add complexity in database application environments. For example, if the solution requires changes to the primary database management system, DBAs may be wary because this could trigger a series of modifications that impact production applications. Furthermore, the database virtualization solution must be able

Source: ESG Research Report, 2009 Data Center Spending Intentions Survey, March 2009.

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to automate refreshes from the production database instance, one of the primary operational costs in database application maintenance and development. For instance, if joined tables within the primary instance are separated for any reason, a virtual database must also be altered so any development and testing efforts can be executed on a system as close to the production environment as possible. It is also important that the database virtualization solution enables customers to automate the creation and management of virtual databases. This includes automating critical parameters, such as cache settings or ID names for virtual databases to operate properly and facilitating retirement when a virtual database is no longer needed. Another key to managing operational efficiency is automating common tasks in the lifecycle of testing and development; in many cases, development databases need to be passed or promoted to testing teams or even exported to production. Of course, a database virtualization solution should enable the creation of database copies in a consolidated footprint and permit these copies to be stored anywhere. Otherwise, IT will continue down the same inefficient and expensive path, creating full replicas for secondary database application environments and storing them on the same storage as production. Last, database virtualization solutions must be able to optimize performance so that testing and development activities can be completed in a timely manner. If multiple virtual databases are consolidated onto a single storage solution, one may need more resources as it is supporting the testing of a critical software patch whereas another is being used for regular quality assurance cycles. In this situation, IT should have the ability to assign more resources to the virtual database supporting the software patch so testing can be completed faster. By having Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities, customers do not have to make a tradeoff between virtual database consolidation and performance.

Summary of Evaluation Criteria

Secondary environments represent the largest and safest opportunity for consolidation using database virtualization solutions. To maximize the benefits of database virtualization, customers should evaluate a solution based on: Minimal disruption to production environment. Database applications support mission critical processes and ongoing development and testing of new capabilities are a necessary part of these infrastructures. Improving the way these secondary operations are handled should not force configuration or other process changes to the primary application environments. Automated management. Secondary database copies are always in motionthey are refreshed with the production environment, promoted or moved from one secondary environment to another, and promoted to production environments. Depending on where they are needed, the refresh, movement, and export processes should be executed with a few clicks rather than several manual steps. Consolidation opportunities. In order to achieve many of the capital and operational cost savings, secondary database copies should be much smaller than the production instance. While the actual size may differ depending on the dataset, companies should be looking for at least a 2X reduction. This is not new to the many organizations already looking at data reduction solutions such as deduplication across their storage environments. Performance management. Smaller copies enable customers to store more of them on a single devicewhich can present performance challenges. Ideally, customers can set Quality of Service parameters so that certain databases get more resources, ensuring critical development and test operations are completed in time to meet business requirements. Storage independence. Storing secondary database copies on any storage devices, as opposed to the fastest, most expensive ones that underpin the production instance, give customers flexibility. Some may want to leverage less expensive, easier to manage direct attached storage devices; others may wish to shift storage vendors; still others may want to consolidate a number of copies onto a single system and boost that systems performance with Solid State Drives; and combined approaches are

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also an option. With such variety, customers actually control how much storage-specific savings they want to get.

The Bigger Truth

A majority of IT departments are operating in cost reduction or cost containment mode. For IT leaders, saving money cannot come at the expense of agility, as business requirements are constantly changing. It is easy to identify the biggest budget line items to slash spending, but a closer analysis can reveal hidden drivers of capital expenses and great opportunities for eliminating operational inefficiencies. For those investigating these hidden opportunities, it is only a matter of time before they uncover the next virtualization frontierdatabase virtualization. Database virtualization helps organizations improve the provisioning and management of secondary database application environments while lowering IT infrastructure costs. Traditionally, this process is a source of enormous expense as IT creates full replicas and stores them on expensive storage. And the business is still usually left waiting for application upgrades and enhancements because it takes too long to create development and test environments. IT leaders are no longer wondering if infrastructure virtualization efforts are worth itserver and desktop virtualization initiatives continue to pay dividends. The real decision is finding other parts of the infrastructure to virtualize, driving more consolidation, flexibility, and automation. Virtual databasesfully functional, albeit smaller and hardware independentare likely to be talked about in the same category as server virtualization and data deduplication solutionsa unique category of solutions that can actually deliver cost savings while improving ITs ability to quickly address changing business requirements.

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