What do virtualization executives think about 2009? A VMBlog.com Series Exclusive.
Contributed by Alex Turner, founder and CTO for INSYTEK Inc
Enterprise Virtualization Management: Trends in 2009
Virtualization is the fastest growing technology platform to emerge in the past 30 years. Virtualization of the desktops, applications, and networks is the natural progression of the technology. Research analysts concur, that by the end of 2010, all new deployments in Corporate America will be virtualized at some level. With over 600 million endpoints deployed in companies around the world today, the need for a comprehensive virtualization management platform that can support multiple vendor tools is a macro market trend that will be magnified as the proliferation of virtualization offerings increase.
Physical enterprise Management has been a topic of trends for many years, and roughly began its life in the early nineties when IT, with the growth in personal desktop and applications, went through the first of many “sprawls”. Since then we have seen servers, applications, users, and even management tools sprawl. Today, major systems management solutions have been created to attempt to address some of these issues with physical deployments; however, they poorly address virtualization deployments and are severely lacking in seamless top-to-bottom management.
As Adam Hawley pointed out in Virtualization in the Enterprise: Trends in 2009 just managing VMs and physical servers is not enough, Management needs a top-to-bottom solution for middleware, database, OS, virtualization, physical devices and users in one integrated solution providing users with a comprehensive picture of their world.
The proliferation of virtualization, while solving many modern IT challenges, will create just as many new issues to contend with. Additionally, the virtualization of the desktop will magnify existing gaps in management. Managing disparate systems is expensive and the “Single Pane of Glass” has become more market-ware then actuality. Solution providers and even virtualization vendors are providing customers with a patch work of vertical offerings, even within single vendors, to placate administrators.
Simply providing a cross hypervisor tool sets, while beneficial, still leave large holes in the management stack. Even organizations that are currently using one hypervisor vendor should put a full stack management tool on their shopping lists for 2009. A full stack tool will be necessary even for these single vendor organizations, as even within vendors, tools are vertical to hypervisors, connection brokers, applications and have over looked the aspect that environments are not and will never be 100% virtualized.
About the Author
Alex Turner is the founder and CTO for INSYTEK Inc. He has more than 18 years experience in management of virtualization, system management, and operating system software. Prior to INSYSTEK, Mr. Turner held positions at IBM Tivoli and holds multiple premier industry certifications including MCSE, MCAD, and IBM Tivoli.
