Virtualization technology to be used in bid to improve access to apps in war zones
The U.S. Marine Corps intends to take server virtualization technology into war -- literally -- as part of an effort to improve its IT deployments on the battlefield.
"The Marine Corps has always packed stuff up and taken it to the field – that is not new," said Major Carl Brodhun, the USMC's project officer for enterprise virtualization. "The ability to cram 35 applications into five or six physical hosts is relatively new."
Marines in the field can't rely on fat or stable network connections, "so being able to compress a high number of applications into a constrained footprint" makes it easier for them to continue operating even if connectivity is reduced, Brodhun said. The Marines are adopting an enterprisewide approach to virtualization via an agreement that was announced last week by market leader VMware Inc. As part of the deal, the USMC plans to reduce its current total of about 300 data centers to 30 IT facilities plus 100 "mobile platforms."
