2. Applications for mission-critical systems

What sort of likely applications are there?

SekiguchiPresently, server virtualization technology is widely applied for setting up development and testing environments for systems. Up until now, a server for test use was prepared separately from a server for program-development use. For example, by application of server virtualization technology, a test-use server (which can be freely used any time) is created virtually in the development-use server, and tests can be carried out on that "virtual server". And in recent times, the cases in which server virtualization technology is applied in efforts to reduce power consumption are increasing. For example, although many servers are housed in data centers, it cannot be said that they are all running at full capacity; in fact, most of them are not running at all. At data centers, each server is executing a single application, and an entire system is made up of many such servers. As a result, when servers are observed one by one, many of them are not running so busily. Each individual server, however, is still consuming energy while in idle mode. By using virtualization technology, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the entire system if servers become consolidated.

What fields will attract particular focus from now on?

SekiguchiOur theme is "In what way will issues regarding mission-critical systems continue to be solved by means of virtualization technology?" For example, in the case of financial institutions, setting up so-called "cluster systems" has become commonplace. With such a cluster system, a separate server from that running daily is kept on standby, and when a fault occurs, provision of a service is instantaneously switched over to this "standby server" in such as manner that it continues to provide the service as if the fault had never occurred. This set up requires that the standby server must patiently wait until its chance to operate comes.
Conventionally, for the sake of sustaining reliability, it was taken for granted that all systems would be set up as cluster systems in this manner. However, with the possibility of using server virtualization technology and the advent of an era in which low power consumption is being demanded, the idea that servers really needing high reliability are "clustered" as is and any other servers are "consolidated" has taken hold. It is our goal to realize server virtualization technology that can respond to this idea.