Plala Networks cuts costs by utilizing virtualization technology on IBM System p

The ongoing advances of the Internet have prompted increases in the speed and expansion of Web services. Plala Networks Inc., a Japanese Internet service provider (ISP), is set to make dramatic advances in its ISP business, extending its range into IP phone services, provisioning of video content and broadband service.

Membership is growing for the company’s main homepage business—there were approximately 2.28 million members at the end of December 2006. Increasing numbers of users are participating in Web discussion boards, online chats and surveys. The company’s Web Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is essential for these services. But to manage the services and raise the level of service quality, the company is transforming the server system on which they are based.

Until recently, the CGI system sustained increased loads by increasing the number of servers. But loss of efficiency eventually became a problem. To solve the problem, the company chose to leverage IBM virtualization technology and consolidate its servers on IBM System p5 550Q.

Customer needs

In the past, Plala Networks provided its homepage service to individual members using approximately 30 Intel®-architecture servers running on Linux. Since 1999, the company increased its number of servers to match the rising number of users. However, the product life cycles for the servers were short, leading to increased support and maintenance costs.

Mr. Adachi is manager of the Plala network management department, which is involved in network design and construction as well as operation and maintenance of the company’s various systems. Says Adachi, "Increasing our server facilities demanded more data center space, which meant increased costs and difficulties in operation management. When a failure occurred, recovery was not simple."

With the individual member homepage service, there is a growing number of optional services for high-grade members. Although this increase was accommodated by the CGI, there were inefficiency problems with the existing CGI system. Adachi says, "There is a segment of the high-grade membership in which individuals can write their own programs to work the CGI. There are about 27,000 such members. Demand for these services could exceed the capacity of an individual server, due to the servers’ physical distribution. It was the cause of extreme inefficiency."

In view of these challenges, Plala Networks embarked on server consolidation and virtualization on IBM System p5.

Solution

This is Plala Networks’ first experience with server consolidation and virtualization. The company’s network management department had little information regarding virtual servers, so there were some challenges at first.

Says Adachi, "We worked on the assumption that if we could provide our service not by physical servers but with logical servers, we could expect gains in operating efficiency and space economy. Although at first we had doubts about this, we talked to IBM’s sales and engineering staff and consequently looked to the p5-550Q as our hardware solution for virtualization. As a result of testing, we knew we could obtain adequate performance by replacing our previous system with virtualization. So we settled on one specification to match the demands of replacement, and that was the p5-550Q."

Mr. Shimada of the Plala network management department says, "We understood the major benefits of being free of the physical constraints of servers. IBM was a great help in working with us to deploy virtualization. If we hadn’t had the cooperation of IBM, I don’t think we could have built the new CGI system."

Adachi encourages an all-out approach to new technology at Plala Networks. "The company has only 200 employees. To stay competitive with other companies, including the larger ones, we have to take a positive approach to more advanced technology and break into new areas. The virtualization and introduction of the p5-550Q are helping us achieve this goal."

At present, Plala Networks has two p5-550Q servers installed, each of which can be divided into a maximum of 40 logical partitions. Each server operates from five or more set logical partitions. Allocation of external storage space to logical partitions as a virtual disk resource by the Virtual I/O Server enables resource leveling and efficient utilization of disk space.

Benefits

The p5-550Q went into service in November 2006. Calculations based on initial testing indicate that migration to the new system should yield a 45 percent reduction in overall annual operating costs for the Web CGI system.

From an environmental standpoint, there is also a demand for reduction in power consumption. Adachi says this is one of many benefits Plala Networks has achieved with the IBM solution.

"We can economize on data center space and make substantial cuts in operating expenses, too. There’s a huge reduction in the number of servers, so we reduce costs of software licensing and maintenance and can expect about a 45 percent reduction in overall annual system cost. Servers also generate heat, but since we now use only two, that problem is also alleviated, and power consumption is considerably reduced. Compared with the previous system, it looks like we can cut total power consumption by about 80 percent."

"In addition," he continues, "the benefits of resource distribution are enormous. When a logical partition comes under substantial load, system resources are automatically reallocated to less stressed partitions. This is a benefit that cannot be demonstrated quantitatively, but it makes a huge difference in areas we cannot see."

Advanced users also benefit from a more stable operating environment. Says Adachi, "With the high reliability of System p5, we expect that service failures are less likely to occur."

The p5-550Q servers are running the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for POWER operating system. Plala Networks built its previous system on Linux, so while continuing to harness the capabilities of Linux, it can now leverage the performance benefits of System p5.

"The Linux kernel has been upgraded to version 2.6, and we now have a feeling of enhanced stability." says Shimada. "In addition, there are enormous benefits to running 2.6 on the POWER processor. We can run Linux for mission-critical systems."

Future expansion

Plala Networks’ foray into virtualization technology for server integration is making favorable progress. And the company believes the technology offers possibilities for the future.

Says Adachi, “When it comes to the challenge of virtual server technology, I believe there are other areas in which we can use the technology to gain efficiency. The System p5 platform is allowing us more flexibility in equipment handling while cutting costs. We believe it will enable us to develop a variety of other services, too.”