Virtualization : View from Ground Zero

While everyone who is anyone or is talking to anyone in the Data Center technology space is using the word virtualization and consolidation like never before, what really is the ground reality? Is it really that magic wand which brings in efficiency, faster time to service, lowers TCO and reduces operations cost? Is it really something that is waiting to happen and companies not embracing it on a wrong track?

Had an interesting discussion with some colleagues and we were talking how different the view can be outside this technology Big Talk on virtualization. In reality when enterprises attempt to draw plans to virtualize, it boils down to identifying the applications which would be moved to virtualized environments. This means that business teams which were enjoying dedicated servers (for critical applications or for other reason) will now have their applications moving to some shared infrastructure with no control or visibility to them. This is something the IT department would be unleashing which would move control away from the business teams to the IT team which anyway they do not hold in high regard often.

So the technology decision moves to a different level where the business teams and their leaders are asked for their consent which does not come easy.

So, what's the plan? Well, things like these need to be mandated from the top. IT teams and their vendors may be at their best in implementing and runnings operations but not necessarily in playing the political game and getting biggies to follow the Pied Piper. Another mitigation strategy is to start with low-risk applications and make it a showcase highlighting what the teams would get in terms of benefits when they potentially lose control.

It is not an easy discussion when finally this is still not a pervasive technology acknowledged beyond the CIO's team.

Watch Out for Hyper V

One new technology to watch out for is Hyper V. A lot of companies have watched the runaway success of VMWare and always wanted a part of the pie. While VMWare had the early mover advantage, there have been others who have also launched competing products, but Hyper V is different since it is backed by the muscle power of Microsoft.

EMC acquisition of VMWare did boost its arsenals but virtualization is a more natural extension in the server business to Microsoft than a lateral one for EMC. Apart from a superior "connect" with the Microsoft server environment, Hyper V can challenge VMWare tremendously on price. Eventually the decision may be to either go for some superior functionalities with VMWare paying a lot of money or go for the standard stuff that Hyper V brings in at a fraction of the cost.

This will only broaden the market and commoditize virtualization from what is still a big enterprise's domain. Microsoft can even include this is a default service in its OS for servers to really create havoc for VMWare.