Confio Software, maker of the Ignite8 performance analysis software tool, has introduced IgniteVM, targeted specifically at DBAs to monitor and ensure database performance in a VMware environment. IgniteVM provides visibility beyond the database and into the virtual server layers, reducing the risk of database performance issues and helping to enable a successful physical to virtual (P2V) transition.
"Virtualization of the infrastructure is happening," Don Bergal, COO at Confio Software, tells 5 Minute Briefing. But, of all the Tier 1 apps, the database application has been the one piece that is lagging behind in terms of companies virtualizing. That is starting to change now, and many companies are pushing ahead with moving their databases to virtualized infrastructure, he says. But the problem is that DBAs are being left out, Bergal says.
"All of a sudden, their world changes right out from under them," Bergal explains, and DBAs have no visibility and no ability to continue to do perform the tasks that they have done in the past. These tasks include monitoring the server underneath their database and understanding when the server conditions change, and reacting to hardware and software problems at the server level which affect the database. This lack of visibility beyond the database can prevent DBAs in their efforts to react to the rapidly changing virtual server environment, increasing the risk of performance problems or outages, he notes.
With IgniteVM, which is focused squarely on the DBA and the DBA management team, Confio aims to reduce risk and increase visibility by combining the essential database response monitoring available in Confio's Ignite8 tool with non-intrusive VMware visibility. Confio's flagship product, Ignite8, helps eliminate bottlenecks, speed problem resolution, and reduce the cost of operations for SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, and Sybase databases and VMware servers. IgniteVM, says Bergal, is "designed to give the DBA team the visibility equivalent to what they had in the physical world and to extend that to the virtual world."
This level of visibility ultimately also increases cooperation between DBAs and VMware administrators, enabling both teams to adapt to challenges of the VMware virtualized data center. "We are giving the DBAs something that they don't have and at the same time, it is creating a bond, a path of communication, between the DBA team and the VM admin team, breaking down some of the silos, and allowing cross-communication within the IT organization," Bergal explains.
IgniteVM is agentless, with no software installed on production databases, virtual servers or vCenter. For more information about IgniteVM, visit www.confio.com.