Release number 10 of SUN’s Unix is coming and it will introduce many new features. One of the most interesting is so called N1 Grid Containers:
N1 Grid Containers is a breakthrough approach to virtualization with multiple software partitions per single instance of the OS. N1 Grid Containers make consolidation simple, safe and secure.
Superior Resource Utilization. N1 Grid Containers dynamically adjust resources to business goals within and across the container. With little management overhead (less than 1%), it offers over 4,000 containers per system.
Increased Uptime. With N1 Grid Containers, applications are isolated from each other and from system faults. Using Instant Restart, each Container can be restarted in just seconds. Boot time in large systems can be reduced by as much as 70%.
Reduced Costs. N1 Grid Containers simplifies and accelerates consolidation. It also significantly reduces system, admin and maintenance overhead.
Ashlee Vance, one The Register writer, said:
“The containers are Sun’s answer to logical partitions (LPARs) on AIX and HP-UX and the virtual machines touted by VMware/EMC for Windows and Linux servers. The software permits users to carve up a server into multiple partitions and to set up processing, memory and bandwidth limits for each partition.”