VMware vSphere with Operations Management on System x

Solution Brief

VMware vSphere with Operations Management on System x Managed Virtualization for Advanced Enterprise Infrastructure

Highlights • Unified view of virtual/physical environments • Agile, responsive design for better performance across all workloads • Best-in-class management features for simpler, more productive workflows • Automated capacity allocation for improved resource utilization

Overview Many organizations are moving towards virtualization as a way to consolidate infrastructures, allocate resources more efficiently, reduce IT costs, and become more responsive to business needs. It is not enough, however, to assemble a virtualized data center out of various hardware and software components and assume the benefits and rewards of cloud computing are assured. A virtualized IT environment has to be managed proactively. As virtualization is deployed and customers increase the size and maturity of their environments, their infrastructure and management tools must advance with them. Real-time health and performance analytics are required. Capacity management and optimization needs have to be understood. IT teams have to be able to predict and preempt any problems that could disrupt the environment—and slow down the business as a whole. With the VMware® vSphere® with Operations Management™ on System x® solution, market-leading hardware is combined with the software virtualization platform with bestin-class management capabilities. vSphere with Operations Management is workloadoptimized, easy and fast to deploy on System x servers, and provides everything needed to get mission-critical workloads up and running within minutes—and keep them up and running. As two of the original innovators in virtualization technology, Lenovo® and VMware can be trusted with your end-to-end IT needs. Technical teams work together to ensure that joint solutions are fully integrated, tested and optimized for the highest performance and quality. This solution enables you to reduce IT complexity and costs dramatically, simplify management and increase business agility to accelerate your journey toward a Software-Defined Enterprise.

Introduction to vSphere with Operations Management on System x vSphere with Operations Management provides clients with all the robust virtualization features of VMware vSphere®, combined with a single view of their IT environment through an operational dashboard to determine root causes faster, obtain real-time health and performance analytics, and understand their capacity management and workload optimization needs. The System x platform provides advanced compute and storage capabilities that enterprise X ARCHITECTURE® (EXA) technology offers: faster compute, more memory and flash storage capacity, eXFlash SSD technology, Predictive Failure Analysis and a modular form factor designed for configurability and expansion upon growth. Built on Intel® Xeon® processors, System x X6 servers speed data-intensive applications and provide faster virtualized performance through better bandwidth and lower latencies.

VMware vSphere with Operations Management on System x

Not all virtualization solutions are the same vSphere with Operations Management on System x supports the most memory in the industry: • New eXFlash DIMM storage technology provides immediate access to actionable information and delivers faster database performance for big data workloads • MAX5 memory expansion enables customers to run more virtual machines per processor • Advanced Processor Failover increases availability and access to networking, management, and storage

vSphere with Operations Management on System x advantages • Reduce downtime of applications by 36 percent • Reduce diagnostics and problem resolution time by 26 percent • Increase capacity use by 34 percent • Increase consolidation ratios by 36 percent1

The vSphere with Operations Management on System x solution enables customers to optimize their IT environments and transform their data centers with highly responsive workload enablement and intelligent performance analytics. The solution is ideal for organizations in the early stages of cloud adoption. vSphere with Operations Management on System x enables IT to proactively monitor system health and performance, automate capacity for mission-critical workloads and next-gen applications, and lower costs through simplified management and improved resource utilization.

A better architecture creates better performance What makes vSphere with Operations Management on System x different from other managed virtualization infrastructure solutions on the market? One key differentiator lies in the underlying architecture of the solution—EXA technology. EXA technology delivers exclusive memory capabilities for larger and faster virtual environments, enabling customers to run more virtual machines with better control at a lower total cost of ownership. VMware vSphere® Flash Read Cache™ virtualizes server-side flash to provide high performance read caching that accelerates application performance. VMware virtualization management technology integration with System x advanced memory enhancements drives performance and speeds operations for mission-critical, memory-hungry workloads. System x X6 servers feature the sixth generation of EXA and deliver exclusive flash memory advances designed to boost performance of x86 servers. Packed with flash memory of 12.8 TB inside the box, these servers will run Intel’s latest processor in four- and eight-way configurations. Flash memory is inside the server chassis—one advantage of this configuration is that RAM and flash storage now share the same memory channel resulting in lower latencies and a potential performance boost of 10 times the performance of previous generations. The architecture, specifically designed to handle workloads such as big data analytics and also provide new levels of performance and resiliency for enterprise applications, is also capable of delivering 3 times the scalable memory compared to competitors. The vSphere with Operations Management on System x solution offers Predictive Failure Analysis, which proactively monitors more system sub-components. This capability can be combined with management tools and VMware vCenter™ and VMware vSphere® vMotion® features available in vSphere with Operations Management to migrate workloads before a hardware failure happens, seamlessly and automatically, resulting in zero downtime.

Best-in-class management features Another unique benefit of vSphere with Operations Management on System x is the deeply integrated system management tools. Lenovo offers a range of management tools that integrate with vCenter to create simpler, more productive workflows. Through vCenter, you can perform management, monitoring, configuration and task updates for System x servers, and add provision and migrate volumes for storage.

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VMware vSphere with Operations Management on System x

Increased agility:

Helping users manage their IT environments proactively is a key differentiator for the vSphere with Operations Management on System x solution. Comprehensive management and analytics features include:

• Proactively manage and respond to improve performance and meet service level agreements (SLAs) • Automate workload migration within minutes between servers with zero downtime • Create, manage and automate capacity optimization to increase utilization • Migrate VMs upon failure and seamlessly provision on-demand resources • Support more DIMMs per channel and achieve higher memory speeds

• Health monitoring and performance analytics • Capacity management and optimization • Operations dashboard and root cause analysis • High availability and fault tolerance • Modular server design to enable configurability With these features, vSphere with Operations Management transforms System x server architecture into a shared, mainframe-like, resilient environment with built-in service level controls for all applications. This functionality paves the way for a SoftwareDefined Data Center: an IT environment that enables pooling, aggregation and delivery of all compute, storage, networking, security and availability capabilities as software-based services.

Lower total cost of ownership: • Maximize ROI and improve CapEx • Lower per-processor software licensing costs with eXFlash memory-channel storage • Reclaim unused VMs and right-size over-provisioned VMs to maximize server use • Reduce IT Management costs with more efficient diagnostics and faster problem resolution • System x servers allow three generations of server technology in the same shell

How can vSphere with Operations Management on System x help you? A virtual infrastructure alone can help reduce IT costs. But when a virtual infrastructure is combined with proactive operations management tools, customers can dramatically increase IT savings. These benefits include:

Why System x

Simplified management:

System x is the leading provider of x86 systems for the datacenter. The portfolio includes rack, tower, blade, dense and converged systems, and supports enterprise class performance, reliability and security. System x also offers a full range of networking, storage, software and solutions, and comprehensive services supporting business needs throughout the IT lifecycle.

• Gain visibility of the entire virtual environment through a single dashboard • Add capacity easily and have mission-critical workloads up and running in minutes • Integrate seamlessly with vCenter to enable more productive workflows with easy-to-use management tools • Monitor and maintain your virtualized environment and physical architecture holistically

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About VMware VMware, the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructures, delivers customer-proven solutions that accelerate IT by reducing complexity and enabling more flexible, agile service delivery. VMware enables enterprises to adopt a cloud model that addresses their unique business challenges. The VMware approach accelerates the transition to cloud computing while preserving existing investments and improving security and control. More information is available at www.vmware.com.

For more information To learn more about VMware vSphere with Operations Management on System x, please contact your Lenovo or VMware Business Partner, or visit http://www.vmware.com/ partners/global-alliances/lenovo/overview.html for more information. 1 Management Insights, “Study Shows Businesses Experience Significant Operational and Business Benefits from VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite”, 2014.

© 2015 Lenovo. All rights reserved. Availability: Offers, prices, specifications and availability may change without notice. Lenovo is not responsible for photographic or typographic errors. Warranty: For a copy of applicable warranties, write to: Warranty Information, 500 Park Offices Drive, RTP, NC, 27709, Attn: Dept. ZPYA/B600. Lenovo makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party products or services. Trademarks: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, and System x are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo. Intel, the Intel logo, and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. Visit http://www.lenovo.com/lenovo/us/en/safecomp.html periodically for the latest information on safe and effective computing.

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