What do virtualization executives think about 2009?  A VMBlog.com Series Exclusive.

Contributed by Sumit Dhawan, Vice President, Product Marketing, Application Virtualization Group and Desktop Delivery Group

Virtualization: Where Do We Go From Here?  

As we close out 2008, we’re nearing the emergence of a new wave of the hot, hot technology of virtualization. During 2008, we saw the first wave of virtualization in full swing and mainstream usage; we saw customers clamoring for server consolidation at lower costs. It was all about virtualization for infrastructure optimization – and it worked. The early adopters – the leaders – who started these projects two years ago have come out to be in a very strong position as a result of their server virtualization projects. These early adopters saw the tremendous benefits to be had from the technology and invested heavily in it. 

Now, as we move into 2009, I fully expect that a second wave of virtualization is going to hit. With the current economic environment, there is no question IT organizations will get hit and hit hard. IT will be forced to look at optimizing every resource, service and practice they possibly can in order to be more effective and efficient in serving the business. They will be forced to rethink their core function of delivering the life-blood of any business – its applications – thinking of delivering them as a service to its users in the most flexible, cost-effective manner possible. The second wave of virtualization will be all about this kind of business optimization, making a greater impact on business than what came before.

This second wave of virtualization for business optimization will focus on two key areas: desktop virtualization and virtualization in the cloud.

Desktop virtualization is an emerging technology with huge promise. Desktop virtualization will promise to optimize user productivity by virtualizing the workforce – allowing users to work from any location at any time, and ensuring business continuity. Delivering instant access to a desktop allows IT to create the most flexible, cost-effective infrastructure that can more readily adapt to the constant changes in the business environment. This is the kind of business innovation and impact, I expect, the second wave of virtualization will deliver. Big!

Similarly, virtualization technologies will be extended to the cloud in this second wave. This will enable IT to deliver business flexibility and agility for quickly provisioning new applications and data to users anywhere using highly secure, always available services in the cloud. Virtualization technologies will truly enable the cloud technologies to be cost effective for mainstream use.

This second wave of virtualization without a doubt will have a much greater impact on business and business optimization. Businesses run on applications; hence, this second wave will focus on innovation and optimization for business rather than just IT or the data center.

We’ll still see many IT teams who will continue to adopt and expand their server virtualization for consolidation in 2009; these are the late adopters of the technology who are catching up to their competitors. In addition, I expect that 2009 will be the year when we will see the second wave of virtualization technologies to start getting adopted. While many of the leaders of the first wave will become the leaders for the second, new leaders will emerge. Those IT teams who have a keen understanding of business requirements – how to quickly, easily and consistently deliver applications and desktops to users as a service – will emerge as the early adopters of the second wave of virtualization. And they will reap the benefits for years to come. At the same time, vendors who offer virtualization solutions targeted for business innovation will see success in this second wave and emerge as leaders.

While we have some tough economic times and tight IT budgets (possibly unprecedented) to come in 2009; however, these are the times that lead to innovation and adoption of new technologies. I remain confident that 2009 will be the year IT will become more strategic to the business and the second wave of virtualization technologies will be the ones that will take IT there!

About Sumit Dhawan

Sumit Dhawan is Vice President of Product Marketing in the Application Virtualization Group and Desktop Delivery Group at Citrix. 

Sumit Dhawan is responsible for leading the go-to-market strategy for the company’s flagship product line, Citrix® XenApp™, as well as the Citrix® XenDeskop™ product line. As part of his role, he is responsible for evangelizing the application virtualization and emerging desktop virtualization market segments within the IT industry.
 
Prior to his current role, Dhawan was senior director of product marketing for XenDesktop, as well as director of product management for XenApp, and led the growth of this product line to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2007. Since joining Citrix in 1998, he has held product management, product development and product marketing leadership positions for a variety of product lines and markets. Dhawan brings 15 years of experience within virtualization software industry.  Before joining Citrix, Dhawan worked at IBM and successfully led a global team for implementing one of the largest AS/400 implementations in the U.S.
 
Dhawan holds degrees in both business and science with a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Minnesota. Dhawan also holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology.