Kingston: memory key to virtualisation success

Tag : memory

As the market for DRam plummets, memory vendor Kingston Technology has demonstrated new ways for system builders to create revenue.
The increasing demand for virtualisation services could createbetter opportunities for system builders, and improved margins onmemory, said Steve Hall, product marketing manager at KingstonTechnology.
But he said they will have to change the way they source and supplymemory products.
Hall spoke to CRN at the joint VM08 and IP08 shows at Earls Court in London.Kingston ran a stand demonstrating to IT managers how success andfailure of a project hinges on memory.
Two identical high-end Toshiba laptops were on display. One had 1GBof RAM, the other 8GB of RAM. The 1GB RAM laptop began to slowafter being partitioned into two virtual machines running a basketof applications. But the 8GB RAM machine was still furiously numbercrunching after being partitioned 15 times.
“We have had all sorts of project managers in here today,from manufacturing, the police, to the finance sector,” saidHall.
“All have big departments that want to rationalise. Theirfirst reaction is to ask, why is Kingston at a virtualisation show.The second reaction is that they need to order some morememory.”
Hall said there will be a lot of demand for system builders thatcan manage a virtualisation project for clients. But they will haveto improve how the memory is supported.
System builders tend to source memory through Kingston’sValue RAM channel. But no-frills products are a false economy tobusiness-class customers and Hall said that VARs will need to stepup and offer service through its systems-specific memory channel,if they want to keep the customers.
Virtualisation is mission critical, so resellers should not beafraid to charge more for features such as burn-tested components,he said.
Sam Routledge, services director at infrastructure builder Softcat , echoed this sentiment. “I speak to IT directors all day andthere are two things they talk about: business continuity andvirtualisation,” he said.
“While processing power and disk input/output are important,the most crucial factor is the memory.”