|
 T Srinivasan, Managing Director, VMware India and Saarc, says cloud computing is the next logical stage in the adoption of virtualization. Users want the ability to access infrastructure resource pools how and when they choose
Virtualization has revolutionized the IT industry, improving every dimension from the desktop through the datacenter to the cloud. Virtualization platforms have gained the support of the entire ecosystem of technologies, including servers, storage, networking, security, operating systems and applications.
Year 2009 will be remembered as the year when IT entered the next major transformation, to cloud computing, which can potentially deliver order-of-magnitude gains in IT flexibility, agility and cost efficiency.
Virtual machines have proved that they are better than physical machines, opening up new options which are not possible in the physical world.
The IT industry is moving toward the vision of cloud computing, and virtualization is the infrastructure on which it is being built. Each stage of virtualization adoption is making the next stage possible. Moving through the stages of virtualization, organizations are gaining the benefits of each stage while building the infrastructure that will support cloud computing.
Cloud computing is the next logical stage in the adoption of virtualization. Users want the ability to access infrastructure resource pools how and when they choose. IT teams are being asked to accommodate this shift in the consumption model, but still have to deal with the security, compatibility and compliance issues associated with delivering that convenience to application business owners.
With more innovations in the virtualization ecosystem, these users will expand the virtual platform to enable cloud computing on each company’s own terms. Resources pooled in local datacenters or remote compute clouds will be interchangeably, fluidly and safely shared, tracked, and charged back to the user.
Future plans
We have recently announced our management vision—a shift from component-level infrastructure management to cloud-based delivery of IT services, thus reducing the cost and complexity of managing IT, and helping customers to use IT infrastructure to drive business results. This can help customers be more efficient, achieve greater levels of control, and be more responsive to their business counterparts.
The potential of virtualization in India is huge. Segments such as BFSI, telecom, IT, ITES and manufacturing have been early adopters of consolidation and virtualization. In addition to benefits like ease of management and better resource utilization, enterprises are increasingly becoming aware of additional benefits such as design densities, power and cooling.
Virtualization will affect most organizations in one form or the other in 2010. Consolidation is a big driver for virtualization, followed by business continuity, disaster recovery and utility. The good news is that virtualization can benefit anyone who uses a computer. Virtualization as a whole is evolving IT management to a higher level to focus on what IT should be measured on—business outcomes, instead of having to deal with tedious day-to-day tasks.
Channel play
As for most virtualization vendors, channel partners play a key role in taking these messages to our customers and evangelizing virtualization as a technology. They become a part of a global movement for the conservation of energy, and imbibe global best practices. We will continue to make it easy for them to do business with us and become more profitable by incorporating proven virtualization solutions into their business models.
Virtualization vendors should enable Indian organizations and their IT departments to shift their primary focus from maintenance to enhancing efficiency and innovation. This could include the business infrastructure virtualization approach which enables organizations to virtualize all IT assets by leveraging a common virtualization platform and set of automated management processes.
| Takeaways for 2010 |
- Cloud computing is the next stage in the adoption of virtualization
- Resources pooled in local datacenters or remote compute clouds will be shared, tracked and charged back to the user
- Virtualization will affect most organizations in 2010
- Virtualization can benefit anyone who uses a computer
- SMB’s turning to virtualization will be the biggest opportunity in 2010
- IT departments will continue to optimize financial energy by reducing capital and datacenter costs
- Enterprises will shift human energy from servicing hardware to driving the business
|
Benefit of virtualization
The most obvious benefit of virtualization is in the realm of savings. When we talk about savings we break it into three categories of energy—financial, human and the earth’s. Most people equate virtualization with the Capex savings that result from server consolidation, but a broader virtualization strategy, defined as business infrastructure virtualization, leads to much more than simply savings on server costs.
Financial energy or cost savings attracts most people to virtualization in the beginning. Human energy savings is all about shifting the energy away from managing hardware to spending time on business needs. We all have an obligation to use less of the earth’s energy, and use it wisely. Virtualization in the datacenter has shown the ability to save up to 80 percent in energy costs. It also helps IT organizations to contribute to the business objectives of reducing the carbon footprint and going green.
In 2010, IT departments will continue to optimize financial energy by reducing capital and datacenter costs to do more with less; shift human energy from servicing hardware to driving the business; and save the earth’s energy by using less power, cooling and real estate.
Led by a desire to control IT costs and deliver improved business continuity, SMB customers will increasingly turn to virtualization to address their critical IT needs by delivering the most reliable, best-performing and easiest to manage solutions. That will be the biggest opportunity as we walk into 2010. |