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Posted

We have to convince the governors that we'd like to go with virtualisation on our servers, but the last time we tried explaining to one governor her eyes glazed over.

Are there any legitimate analogies we could use?

Sort of like

"imagine servers were tables, you have one table to hold a lot of files (a server role). you then have another table to hold another lot of files. virtualisation would be getting a much larger, sturdier table that could hold multiple files."

 

i know its not great, but we need something that the governors can understand without delving into technical terms really.

any help would be appreciated!

Posted

Imagine we take one big, powerful server. Then we tell it that it's actually lots of little servers which we can do whatever we want with, without having to actually buy a new server each time.

 

Any good?

Posted (edited)

I've got my business manager believing there are 5 computers under his desk, only 4 of them are invisable. He's got to be careful were he put's his feet :D

 

Still that's better than the conversation on our internet connection that involved tin cans and bits of string...

 

 

Virtualisation: You buy 1 computer with a superiority complex, it becomes schitzophrenic.

Edited by tmcd35
Posted

One I used a while ago was the people in a room scenario:

 

One real server is like a room with its standard OS being a person, one person in a room has to do all the work and takes a certain amount of time to do so. If it is a big room/server then you can put more people in it so they can all work together to get the stuff done quicker.

 

Assuming you have more work to do and no space for more people you can add another building/server and put more people in there to do yet more work. This also adds redundancy, if the power goes out to the server/building the other server/building can keep working.

 

If you have a lot of stuff to work on files/boxes you can get a warehouse (centralised storage - SAN, NAS) where the stuff to be worked on can be stored and transported to/from.

 

You can also get into trucks between the facilities being the network, bigger trucks etc. but its best to try and keep it only as complex as it needs to be.

  • Thanks 1
Posted

thanks for the ideas. we dont actually know what level they are expecting this to be pitched at, but all the ideas give us some options.

thanks :)

Posted
Best thing I did was to demonstrate it. Took my laptop to SMT and fired up a few different VMs to show how you could run multiple virtual computer on one physical computer.

 

the problem is for those who dont really understand IT that is just you sat there running different programs on a PC. if they dont understand stuff in more depth then just showing them is like a mechanic showing you under the bonnet if you haven't got a clue about cars

Posted

Okay, I've got it! You need a prop for this.

 

Get 1x Russian doll (you know, the ones with more dolls in side).

Keep the biggest doll hidden away to one side.

Spread all the other dolls out in front of the audience.

Point at the dolls and say "these are our servers".

 

Now get the biggest dolls and say "If we buy 1 really big server, we can put all these other small servers inside the big"

Demonstrate by putting the dolls away inside the big doll.

 

"Thats Virtualisation - It'll save us money - Thank you" then bow ;)

  • Thanks 2
Posted

"Server within a Server"

Analogy: Hotel or Flats.. One Big building, with lots of little houses inside

 

Or in a language they may understand: for £xx,xxx we can buy this really powerful server and on that we can put lots of other servers without having to spend more money..

Posted
Show them. Take them to see all of your current servers and explain that you can condense them all down into one box, then tell them the benefits. Don't treat them like children, if they really are that interested in how it works, tell them in real terms, i feel that if you try to use analogies its often more confusing. If you start talking about 'these tables are less sturdy than this one bigger table' and 'filing cabinets that have one drawer and this filing cabinet that has more drawers' they are definitely going to glaze over. I would.
Posted

To speak to governors I'd say:

 

Less maintenance costs, one server as opposed to several servers to buy parts for.

Less energy usage as one server power is less than many servers*

Getting more bang for your buck, utilising a server to its full potential rather than 5 servers performing at 50%, 1 server at near full capacity

Less space required for 1 server as opposed to several.

Easy to backup/restore an instance of a VM (good for your DRP and business continuation).

 

Initial outlay might be a bit more than you'd hope but you'd recoup over time with energy consumption, less maintenance & you're getting good value out of the server you've bought.

 

To explain how it works...

 

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5005372_server-virtualization-work.html

  • Thanks 1
Posted

we did try to explain it in real terms to one governor and like i say, she glazed over and didnt understand us saying servers with multiple roles and having one physical server with 5 virtual servers. she found it hard to envision that.

so its not treating them like children, its trying to explain it in a sense they will understand without just saying

"this big box of junk will run those smaller boxes of junk" and dumbing down too much.

the room/person/warehouse and russian doll analogies give ideas of how it works without patronising too much i think.

and james, thanks for that link, definitely some ones in there we could hit on!

Posted

The following is fairly easy to understand.

 

A Physical Server = An office.

An Operating System Install = A Worker

 

On a non virtualised system, you have your office, and in that office you can only install one worker. The chances are, your office is massive, it might even be a whole three story building, and your worker only uses one tiny corner of it. Thus you are wasting a large amount of money, buying an office, heating an office, lighting an office, paying the phone bill in an office, hiring a security guard for your office, etc, etc all to satisfy the needs of one worker. If you want a second worker, you have to buy a second office!! Ouch!!! Also imagine that the worker (o/s) is tied inextricably to the office. You can't easily move a worker between offices - they have their office and that is where they must stay.

 

Now - imagine the virtualised set up thus:

 

A physical server with virtualisation software = An Office

A Virtual Server = A worker.

 

This is where you can start to visualise your possible benefits and savings.

 

Now we have our office and in it we can partition the office many times over, and in each partition we can fit one worker. We have instantly gone from being stuck with one worker in our three story office, to being able to fit say 30 workers into our office. Now, your seeing big cost savings in purchase cost and in running costs. Also - thanks to the magic of virtualisation software, if you have a new worker, you can fit them into an existing office rather than having to buy a new office. You can effectively, squish the other 30 worker's partitions closer in order to fit one more worker in. Easy. Also - you can move workers between offices at the click of the mouse. If one office has a problem (water leak) your workers can effectively drive to one of your other offices and carry on working with minimal disruption.

 

Does that make sense??

 

I guess you can simplify the above analogy right down to basics, a couple of lines if you need to get it across to a totally IT illiterate person.

 

Butuz

Posted
Analogy wot I just thunk of: Imagine you're organising a wedding. To take everyone from the ceremony to the reception do you hire a fleet of taxis, or just pile everyone onto a coach?
Posted

Now - imagine the virtualised set up thus:

 

A physical server with virtualisation software = An Office

A Virtual Server = A worker.

 

This is where you can start to visualise your possible benefits and savings.

 

Now we have our office and in it we can partition the office many times over, and in each partition we can fit one worker. We have instantly gone from being stuck with one worker in our three story office, to being able to fit say 30 workers into our office. Now, your seeing big cost savings in purchase cost and in running costs. Also - thanks to the magic of virtualisation software, if you have a new worker, you can fit them into an existing office rather than having to buy a new office. You can effectively, squish the other 30 worker's partitions closer in order to fit one more worker in. Easy. Also - you can move workers between offices at the click of the mouse. If one office has a problem (water leak) your workers can effectively drive to one of your other offices and carry on working with minimal disruption.

 

Does that make sense??

 

I guess you can simplify the above analogy right down to basics, a couple of lines if you need to get it across to a totally IT illiterate person.

 

Butuz

 

Somethings been bothering me with the 'Office' analogy, I think I can correct it...

 

Imagine you have 10 small offices in 10 small buildings. Now imagine buying 1 big building and putting 20 office in it with 6 offices worth of staff for the whole building. Still with me? Now you can shut all those 10 small buildings with single offices and use 1 over worked big building instead.

 

That's virtualisation ;)

Posted
one i'd use is that servers become like word documents, so you have the flexibility to move them and load them on different servers. This gives you better pricing in licensing, more flexibility with hardware , better power savings, and faster disaster recovery.
  • 3 months later...

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