Huh?? A Guide to the Lyrics

By David Hunt

As a special service for those of you that don't have a degree in computer science, we're pleased to offer the following annotated version of the lyrics to "Virtualized Hardware Hotel," the award-winning music video produced by employees of the Friday Institute.

We use VMware to automate the creation of servers
A hundred images in a matter of minutes
Without configuring 100 separate machines

The software essentially allows you to transform hardware into software. On a single large server, you can create a number of virtual computers and allow them to share hardware resources without interfering with each other. Each virtual machine has its own processor, RAM, hard disk and network controller. And each can run an operating system and applications independently of the other virtual machines.

We can rapidly create and destroy among chaos and riots
And use a bunch of thin, thin clients
With no phone calls interrupting my dreams

Chaos happens when you have one IT person trying to service hundreds of computer users. With a centralized server running hundreds of virtual machines, it's easier to solve problems quickly. Thin clients are lightweight, low-energy computers people use to access the virtual machines. Let's say you have an older computer with a slow processor, a small amount of RAM and no software applications other than your operating system. That would also be a thin client. If you logged on to a Friday Institute virtual machine, you could run programs on your computer as if you had a fast processor, a ton of RAM and the most current applications.

What if the server goes down?
We can restore all of the settings like instantly
And offer high availability
Fail over, over working so well

It's simple: The servers are virtual but the people are real.

High availability means the servers don't go down very often and don't stay down very long. Fail over means that if the server crashes, there's another server that immediately begins running all the virtual machines so they aren't lost.

What if the server goes down?
We guarantee the data, data recovery
Our other data center warm and ready
Check out our virtualized hardware hotel

More of the same concept. If the server crashes, your virtual machine migrates to another server, which is ready to pick up where the first server left off. It's not a real hotel, obviously. But it is interesting to note that the Friday Institute is the first and only department in the university that offers 100 percent virtualization in its server technology.

VMware results in massive consolidation
And all that money, I guess we saved some
A smaller tech department servicing needs

Well, you knew there was a reason for all this excitement. They're saving the taxpayers money.

VMware saves us a fortune in electrical cooling
It's more efficient in the space that we're using
The extra room can be obtained for a fee

The most expensive budget item for computers these days is power and cooling, not the cost of equipment. So, if you can save money on the electric bill, you're smart.

See, it wasn't as complicated as the lyrics to American Pie.

Get even more information about the Friday Institute here.