Software gets more from less

A Plymouth company sells software that lets one computer server do the work of 20. It can be a tough trick to pull off.

By STEVE ALEXANDER, Star Tribune

Last update: April 20, 2008 - 10:49 PM

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John Conlin is a bit of a David Copperfield who works computer magic. The software he sells creates the illusion that one network computer server is really 20 PCs.

It's a beneficial illusion, because the corporations that use the software don't need to buy or maintain as much equipment as they did before, analysts say.

Conlin and David Lindblom, his partner in privately owned Mocha Data of Plymouth, didn't invent the software, which performs a task called "virtualization." But as a Twin Cities-based reseller of the software from companies such as VMware, Mocha Data is riding a big industry trend that involves radically simplifying operations in the corporate data center.

The trick behind the software illusion is this: It can combine the work of servers that do wildly different things -- such as Web pages, e-mail, accounting, data backup and everyday documents and spreadsheets -- onto a single server. It's possible because most network servers don't operate at anywhere near their full capacity, so the tasks from 20 mostly idle servers can be transferred to a single server that then runs at full capacity.

This is a difficult trick to pull off, because the 20 tasks on a single server must be compartmentalized so that they don't interfere with one another, Conlin said. What's more, performance must be good enough that the users of the computer have no idea they're no longer dealing with 20 servers. Conlin claims that applying virtualization to all of a company's data center -- eliminating costly duplication of network servers, disk-drive data-storage devices and even stored data -- can cut a corporation's computer operations budget by 50 percent.

There is a risk that a heavily loaded server could fail, taking down 20 computer functions with it, Conlin said. But corporations prepare for that by running a spare server that automatically takes over, he said.

One customer, Barr Engineering of Edina, hasn't had to buy a new network server -- costing $5,000 to $10,000 each -- in the year the firm has been using the Mocha Data software, said Jeff Clemon, Barr's lead network analyst. In addition, computer maintenance has been simplified, because Barr's existing 30 network servers have been combined onto three servers, he said.

Some analysts say it's too early to claim such large savings from using virtualization software, as only half the nation's large corporations are using or testing it.

"Corporations have to go through an adjustment in their thinking to do this," said Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

The 10-employee Mocha Data was profitable last year on $5 million in revenue, and serves mainly architectural, engineering and construction firms -- businesses that store a lot of design data, Conlin said.

"We're really in at the beginning of this," he said.

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553