Virtualization
Extended product lifecycle and availability
A Brückner film stretching line is built to last for decades. But what about the line’s “brains”, the hardware and software which form the basis of its sophisticated process control system?
Due the developments within their industry, these components, such as servers, PC workstations and versions of operating systems and application software, show a shorter life cycle than other parts of the machine. If the hardware for servers and workstations of the IPC-system has become obsolete and compatible replacement hardware can no longer be found, then the original system installation needs to be updated with new, state-of-the-art hardware.
A simple restore of a system backup (hard disk image) will not work in most cases, because of differences in hardware design. Various original operating system drivers will fail, because they are not able to handle the new hardware correctly. This is where the technology of virtualization comes into place.
