Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2014. Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed article by Dirk Paessler, CEO of Paessler AG
Challenges and Changes in Virtualization and Monitoring
As 2013 comes to a close, it's natural to reflect on the main trends IT
has faced over the year, and what will likely be in store going forward. For
IT, arguably the biggest impact was caused by SaaS/Cloud. Using cloud based IT
products is a great way of reducing the efforts one must make on premises (less
metal), but it dramatically drives the need for high availability networks and
Internet connectivity. The rules of the game change drastically - now, there is
a need for bulletproof network connectivity. Firms need many connections for redundancy and
speed to ensure all of the cloud-based infrastructure functions properly. This complexity means firms need
sophisticated and proactive monitoring tools to monitor and manage the internal
IT-infrastructure and network connectivity.
Key virtualization and monitoring trends and predictions we see coming
for 2014:
1.
Monitoring is increasingly needed to manage the
complexity of networks. The sophistication of these tools will need to match
customer's evolving needs and be able to accurately report on the performance
and response time of virtual environments. Selecting and launching a monitoring
tool is part of an overall business trend towards consolidation and efficiency.
Budgets are still tight, and firms are spending capital on IT infrastructure
tools such as network monitoring to minimize downtime and get the most out of
existing infrastructure. They have a measure of peace of mind with the
monitoring in place and can concentrate on where the greatest needs lie for
network investments.
2.
Virtual machines need to be included in
monitoring. It needs to expand beyond physical devices to the virtual machines
and the services and applications that are on those. These tools will feature
native sensors built for virtual machines that can monitor a host system; CPU
and memory usage of virtual machines on VMware, XenServer virtual machine
statuses, disk space available on Hyper-V cluster shared volumes, and many
others.
3.
The need for flexible systems will continue
through 2014 and beyond. IT infrastructures need to be highly flexible in order
to adjust to market needs or bring new services to market quickly. Monitoring
programs must conform by adapting to the needs of the business, whether it's
adding a new device to the network or a host of virtual machines. Firms should
seek out vendors that can fit their current monitoring needs and adapt to the
future, not put them within any constraints.
The IT landscape was (and will continue to be) transformed by
SaaS/Cloud, which is used for an ever-increasing amount of functions such as
CRM, helpdesk, analytics platforms, remote backup, IaaS, and a lot of other
functions. The cloud is essentially becoming the hardware of these systems. As
virtualization marches on, IT will need robust monitoring in place to gain
visibility into issues and resolve them efficiently.
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About the Author
Dirk Paessler, CEO of Paessler
AG, is an engineer, entrepreneur, computer networking professional and software
guru. In addition to founding Paessler AG, provider of the award winning PRTG
network monitoring solution, Dirk has a long track record of co-founding
successful internet platforms such as hotel.de. For additional information on
Paessler, visit http://www.paessler.com/.