Summary

The city of Seabreeze, located in California, was once a prosperous city because of the coastline location. Due to the decline in the real estate market, the city experienced a decrease in property tax revenues. People are spending their money in other areas and less in tourism and retail activity. As a result, this generated less sales tax revenue. To offset the budget deficit, the California Legislature passed a bill requiring cities to transfer 20% of their gross property tax revenues to the state. The city is looking for ways to save money and one of those areas is technology. It is impossible to eliminate technology such as computers all together because it’s a big part of the city daily operations. One of the potential options is virtualization of city’s physical servers, storage devices, and end user computers would result in significant savings in cost to the city of Seabreeze.

Benefits of Virtualization

Virtualization is defined as a technology that uses software to run multiple applications and operating systems on one or more physical host servers all at the same time. Within the host server is comprised virtual computers known as VM (Virtual Machines) are running the operating systems and applications similar to a physical PC. VM are setup as virtual servers and virtual desktops. Below is an example how a virtualization server operates.

Example of Virtualization Server

One of the benefits of virtualization is consolidation of servers since the city has 72 physical servers. The physical servers could be reduced from 72 to 4 host servers due to virtualization. By consolidating the physical servers, it will reduce cost of maintenance, software licenses, and hardware. One example of cost savings, in 2009, Landmark Healthcare had 63 physical servers and used virtualization to replace them. Those servers were replaced with 3 physical host servers and 63 virtual servers and $3,600 in virtualization software costs. Landmark Healthcare saved $60,000 due to maintenance such as operating system licenses, backup system software, and server hardware (Energy Star, n.d.). In addition, consolidating the servers can reduce energy and electricity. According to Energy Star (n.d.), a 2007 study conducted shows the University of Santa Cruz saved $22,000 in energy annually by reducing peak energy by 20kw and used virtualization to run 54 virtual servers and 8 physical host servers.

Disaster recovery is an important factor in all businesses to prevent minimum disruption to operations in case something happens. The city of Seabreeze would benefit by adopting server virtualization. With server virtualization, the server can run on any hardware without changing applications or installing new drivers to fit the new server (Premesberger, 2013). This will make it easier to recover the virtual machine quickly. Software is included in the server virtualization package that helps with process of disaster recovery.
The storage environment consists of DAS (Direct-Attached Storage). DAS is digital storage that is attach to a computer but in this case the servers. For the virtualization, DAS will need to get migrated to SAN (Storage Area Network). SAN consists of storage on a high performance network. Migrating from DAS to SAN will allow it to be better, scalable, stable performance, and easier to transport. SAN will need to be implemented to support server and desktop virtualization. Since storage is centralized, everything is managed on one server. When using SAN technology, if one hard drive is bad, it will default to another working hard drive without disruption to server.
The city of Seabreeze would benefit by using VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) to replace 350 computers. VDI is running a user’s desktop inside a virtual machine and hosted by the server which is usually located in the data center (Citrix, n.d.). The users will access their desktop by logging into session using a Citrix application. The computers used in an office environment are called thin clients. The thin clients is a thin smaller version of a workstation. The end users can access the virtual desktop remotely using any computer or mobile device using the Citrix application. The thin clients are less expensive than laptops and desktops and easier to manage.

The city of Seabreeze will benefit by adopting virtualization because it will save on cost and efficient in disaster recovery with less impact on daily operations. The city will be able to provide the services and reduce costs to the Seabreeze residents.
Potential Negative Implications of Adopting Virtualization

Implementing virtualization is not an easy process and can have negative implications. Before implementing virtualization, it requires large upfront investment uses to purchase hardware, software, training on how to use virtualization, maintenance, and consulting services. Even though it requires higher upfront cost but the city of Seabreeze will save money in the long run. One example, if an increase of RAM (memory) is needed for the servers, the city will purchase for 3 physical servers instead of 72 servers and will save money. During the implementation phase, all new hardware will have to be purchased to meet the requirements for virtualization to work. For example, new servers, RAM, CPU, network cards, and thin client computers. Seabreeze can sell the old hardware that was replace to recover some funds spent on the upfront costs. Seabreeze city employees including the city manager and council are not technical savvy due to the lack of training. The users including the IT staff will need to learn the new technology. The IT staff will have to learn the new technology prior to training the users. The training can consists of training from the vendor where the virtualization is purchased from. On the other hand, in a future environment, the IT staff will only have to manage 3-4 physical servers instead of 72 servers. The IT staff will provide in depth training by holding group training sessions, explaining the virtualization process, and answer any questions that the users may have. The IT staff will explain the concepts in language for the users to understand. With the IT staff providing training, it will ease the users comfort level on using the new technology. Since the physical servers will get reduced from 72 to possibly 3-4 servers that will require less people to manage the servers, the IT staff may fear of losing their jobs due to the virtualization. The remaining IT staff can get assigned to other areas in IT with new duties. In return, this will leave more room for training the employees including the city manager and city council.

Diffusion Analysis

According to Simms (2014), virtualization technology have been implemented and around for 15 years. Prior to this technology, only a single operating system was dedicated to one computer. Now there is software called hypervisor (known as Hyper-V) that is a go between of the physical servers and operating systems that is running on that hardware. This software is part of the virtualization implementation. According to Eddy (2013), 62 percent of medium size businesses have implemented VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) with IT budgets over $100,000. The city of Seabreeze will need to have concise planning and a reasonable budget in place before beginning the project. The city will need to continue working during the transition virtualization with minimum to no down time. In today’s world, most companies have implemented and adopted a form of virtualization such as desktop, server, and storage. One of the forms of virtualization that is used the most in businesses is server virtualization. Each server serves as one function ( i.e. internet server, mail server, file server, application server, etc.) that uses only a fraction of processing power. In addition, the server breaks through the one application, one server barrier and helps with consolidating servers into one physical server (CHLA, n.d.). In other words, server virtualization will consolidate city of Seabreeze 72 physical servers with a minimum of 3 servers. An advantage of server virtualization is cost. The city will not only save on energy cost and less hardware replacement cost, the resources such as hardware and software will be used more efficiently. In addition, server virtualization improves disaster recovery without disruption to the city daily operations. The city of Seabreeze will have reduced energy bills, less physical server space, reduction in IT staff in managing the servers. Another form of virtualization used in businesses is desktop virtualization. Desktop virtualization has to do with end user machines such as a laptop or desktop and deployed as a desktop. These are setup in the data centers in most cases. The data center controls and monitors what applications to install and release software updates across the network. End user machines are more susceptible to vulnerabilities such as malware or viruses than virtual desktop. (CHLA, n.d.). Even though implementing virtualization requires a large upfront investment, the cost of using a virtual desktop is less expensive than an old desktop or laptop with a newer pc.
Potential Barriers

One of the significant barriers that the city of Seabreeze faced is the large upfront cost required before implementing any form of virtualization. In order for the server and desktop virtualization to work, new hardware will need to be purchased. A high quality high performance physical server will cost an estimated $6000 each with an additional equipment to accompany the server needed are cables, racks, hard drives, etc. will be an added expense. Purchasing new hardware will last longer and if issues occur, it will get covered on warranty. Purchasing warranty is an added expense but will save money on the cost of replacement parts. Since the city of Seabreeze is not generating tax revenue as expected, the city council, residents, and manager could be opposed to the virtualization proposal due to the large upfront costs. What also hurt the chances to getting this proposal approved are these stakeholders are not technical savvy. Since they do not have the technical knowledge due to lack of training, the stakeholders would oppose the idea even though it will benefit the city of Seabreeze in the long run. The IT staff and the end users does not have experience with virtualization which they will not accept change easily. The number concern for the end users and IT staff will be job security. By consolidating the 72 physical servers, this will lead to the possibility of reduction of IT staff. Anytime new technology is introduced, people are hesitant and reluctant to learn or use it because no one does not take the time to educate users how to user technology properly. By providing the end users including the IT staff extensive training on virtualization or any other application, it will be an easier transition. Support Strategies

Having support from all the opinion leaders of the local government such as the Mayor, City Council, and City manager is vital in approving and implementing virtualization project. The IT director will have meetings with the opinion leaders prior to beginning the project. The IT Director will ask for their contribution to the project for this to become successful. The purpose of these meetings to reach and achieve the city of Seabreeze goal with the new technology and seek ROI (Return of Investment). Before presenting a proposal of the implementation of virtualization, the IT Director will have an IT analysis of what is needed for the project to become success. The analysis will have the following: current environment state, type of physical servers, applications, business justification, and network infrastructure to implement virtualization. Once the analysis is completed, the IT Director will meet the opinion leaders of the local government to discuss the IT analysis and get estimates to prepare a thorough ROI analysis. In addition, will discuss and address the budget, questions, concerns, expectations, feedback from employees, and issues that may occur during the planning and implementation phase. The city employees will also be part of the process. The IT Director will speak with some of the end users to gather information such as occurring issues with computers, questions, concerns, and what they would like to happen with implementing virtualization. Their opinions matter since they will be using the new technology and will ease the transition. Since the local newspaper is reporting local government spending, explaining virtualization project would give insight about the project. If one of the opinion leaders could give information about the project, this will help educate others on the new technology and for people to accept this new technology. Also the city council could hold a meeting for the residents to explain the proposed project, understand why it requires a large investment, and how the city will save money in the future.

Technology Adoption Curve

According to Rogers (2003), he created the theory Diffusion of Innovations in 1962. Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that explains how, why, and what rate technology and new ideas are spread through cultures. Everett Rogers defines an adopter innovation category that consists of individual classifications within a social system based on new ideas. The adopter category follows a technology S curve when the idea is spread out over time. There are five adopter categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.
Innovators are individuals that are risk takers and often the first to come up with new ideas. Early adopters are opinionated leaders, embrace change, and comfortable with new technology. Early majority are more cautious in making decisions and need more information that the change or idea works. Late Majority are characterized as individuals skeptical of a new ideas but will adopt it after the majority has accepted the new idea. Finally, laggards are last to adopt the new product or idea. These individuals resists new ideas but eventually adopt it.
Eveland (n.d.) view diffusion as “Technology is information and exists only people put into practice and use to achieve values.” Based on the technology acceptance S curve scale, the city of Seabreeze is considered as late majority. According to Rogers (2003), late majority are skeptical individuals to accept new ideas but will adopt the idea after majority has accepted it.
Since the stakeholders are not technical savvy, they are skeptical about using virtualization. Virtualization has been used in business for 15 years (Simms, 2014) and Seabreeze is the last to adopt this technology. Furthermore, the reason that Seabreeze considered this technology because to cut costs and save money in all operational areas. Educating the stakeholders, IT staff, city employees, and residents will gain knowledge and understanding of the project by holding meetings. Providing education will help embrace change and an easier transition on using new technologies.

Technology Acceptance

The city employees are comfortable on completing their daily tasks but only know the basics on using a computer to complete them. Anytime new technology is introduced, the users will feel skeptical and intimidated by the unknown. Virtualization has been around for over a decade and many business are using it. The city of Seabreeze should consider using virtualization because it will make everyone job so much easier but cannot be effective if the employees are not using it. Minimum training and lack of education on using technology is an issue but the end users only know enough to perform daily tasks. Getting the end users feedback will be very important during the development phase of the project. This will help the IT staff to better address the needs of the end users and help make the transition of using virtualization easier to use. By providing education and training to everyone involved (city employees, the Mayor, City Council, IT Staff) early in the project so they will not be overwhelmed with the information presented to them. Training and education will have a big impact on the success of implementing the virtualization project.

References

EnergyStar. (n.d.). Server Virtualization
Retrieve from https://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.datacenter_efficiency_virtualization

Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations
Retrieve from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations

CHLA (2010). Different Types of Virtualization.
Retrieve from http://www.losangelescomputerhelp.com/2010/04/the-different-types-of-virtualization/

Simms, J. (2014) Three Benefits of Virtualization.
Retrieve from http://www.winxnet.com/blog/blog-home/three-benefits-of-virtualization-for-small-and-mid-sized-businesses/

Preimesberger, C. (2013). Virtualization Has Changed Disaster Recovery: 15 Data Points
Retrieve from http://www.eweek.com/virtualization/slideshows/virtualization-has-changed-disaster-recovery-15-data-points

Citrix. (2015). What is VDI?
Retrieve from https://www.citrix.com/glossary/vdi.html