In part one of a two part series, Alex Watson-Jackson looks at virtualisation – where it started, what it is now and where it is going, to offer six very good reasons to virtualise.
What gave virtualisation its current buzzword status was the ability to apply it in the Wintel environment, via tools such as VMware. Suddenly, it was possible to consolidate the Wintel world and, as a result, there was practically no element of the technology environment that could not be reconfigured in a more efficient and effective form – including servers, storage, desktop and networks.
And make no mistake, that consolidation capacity can enable huge benefits. I can name two very good examples off the top of my head:
However, these days virtualisation is about so much more than consolidation, which is why I refer to it as a journey in the title of this blog.
Today, virtualisation opens the door to a host of immediate benefits, but also sets organisations on the road to a whole new technology infrastructure model – one that transforms the role of the CIO and indeed that of the IT department itself.
In this brave new world, which I will explore in part 2 of this series, the IT department is transformed from a support role to an active and crucial participant in the development of a winning business strategy.
For now, though, here are six very good reasons to virtualise:
Ignore them at your peril – you’ll be overlooking a whole host of cost and time efficiencies – but worse, you’ll risk leaving your own role (and your IT department) in the dark ages by failing to realise the transformative effect that virtualisation can have on systems design and management.
As I’ll explore in part 2 of this series, this transformative effect is underpinned by the sheer level of centralised control that virtualisation makes possible – provided it is coupled with proper and far-sighted planning.
Right now, this heady mix is enabling IT pros to implement dynamic data centre environments consisting of pools of high-performing computing resources that can be centrally managed, readily automated and efficiently maintained - and with an upgrade path that is evolutionary instead of disruptive.
But more on that next time…