What do Virtualization and Cloud executives think about 2012? Find out in this VMblog.com series exclusive.

Virtualization and Cloud Predictions for 2012

Contributed Article by Carl Eberling, CTO, Quest Software

When I look out at the year ahead, I see some clear areas of growth in virtualization and cloud. There will be some marked changes in the ways that IT can serve their users and better align with the business. When working with customers around the world in advancing their use of these key technologies, I've seen the following issues come through loud and clear.  

Cloud will get defined or get archived

I have to start with predictions for the cloud, mostly due to high level of marketing buzz, and senseless chatter by sales people everywhere.  I will start my predictions with being the first on record to claim that the Occupy Wall Street protesters will shift the focus of their ire from Bankers to Cloud Marketers.  I can see it plain as day. They will be holding various signs asking, "Why is there such a divide?", "When will you deliver the promise?", "Cloud is here. Now what?"  Seriously, it's time to be clear about how Cloud is making IT better, and how people are leveraging it.  I am in the camp that says the idea of provisioning an environment is meaningless, on its own.  Instead the focus needs to be on how the service is being provided to the end users, and ultimately how to provide BETTER IT.  End users in the business really don't need environments.  What they need are services, and they want them as cheap as
they can find and as reliable as they can afford.  So in 2012, IT will have to start clearly defining what their Cloud does for the end user. 

Your kids will explain SAAS to you

Just as the App Store at Apple has educated an entire generation about what applications are, so too are people today becoming aware of SAAS based applications.  The level of awareness in 2012 will rise to a point where people are going to ask for SAAS as a preference when buying applications.  The X-BOX live generation is going to prompt demand for social integration and automated updates, and presence along with all of the great functionality the application is meant to provide.  More and more, users will be asking "Why can't I pay as I go for usage?" and "why can't it be easy enough to sit down and learn without weeks of training from any browser or at any time?"  The need to make services that are easy to interact with is critical here. If you can't make it simple, then users see this as an indication that you haven't spent enough time to build a valuable product.  So yes, our kids will not just explain SAAS to us, but also question why all current applications aren't already SAAS enabled. 

CIO's will embrace the broker role in their list of responsibilities

Virtualization and cloud technologies have made it easier than ever for services to be provided to an organization from potentially multiple providers.  Executives in companies will not feel encumbered to go through IT to buy technology services.  In order to continue their role as the solution provider, the CIO will need to address key challenges such as delivering a single source of record for data, defining who is paying for what, and effectively managing SLA's. And they will be assembling those solutions across multiple service providers, and solving that critical last mile of applicability to the value proposition of the business.  So they will be brokering many relationships, across several service providers, and will look for ways to stay on top of these aspects previously mentioned.  Less of their time will be tied up performing boring, redundant tasks that are finally being automated, but instead will contribute to strategic decisions that should allow the new IT organization to get an even better focus and alignment with the business.  

The users' workspace is set free from hardware in 2012

One great by-product of virtualization and cloud advancements in automation is that it is now possible for people to be productive from nearly anywhere, at anytime.  The analysts kept promising us all in the past that the year of VDI was just around the corner.  I would argue that innovation in this space will be obvious in 2012, but the focus will be less about the desktop and more about what users really want, what they need in their workspace. The answer may be a virtual desktop, or perhaps not.  What the user really wants is flexibility, and the push of consumerization is forcing that issue in 2012 like never before. And IT must deal with this.  The users are no longer asking if they can use one device or another, they are no longer asking if they can store files in DropBox or Box.net, they are no longer asking if they can access applications from their home machine, they are just doing it.  In addition with awareness around SAAS, they are also pushing for more SAAS enabled applications that they can access from a browser, wherever and whenever they want.   The user is also not willing to wait anymore for their hardware to be upgraded, or their OS to be upgraded, they do not want to be required to have downtime while their device is being upgraded.  If IT wants to upgrade my OS or my browser, they better plan the implementation of these changes so I can still be as productive after the upgrade as I was before.

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About the Author

Carl Eberling is Quest Software's chief technical officer and is responsible for creating and evangelizing Quest's overall product strategy. Eberling is an IT industry veteran who most recently, was senior vice president of IT at Kaiser Permanente. Prior to that, he held senior-level IT-management positions at
Verizon Wireless, Pacific Bell, Cellular One and AirTouch Communications. Eberling holds a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University and completed his graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley, and Golden Gate University. He also served in the U.S Marine Corps.