Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2017.  Read them in this 9th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed by Giovanbattista Mattiussi, marketing director at KALEAO

Looking Ahead to a Year of Innovation and Change

As we embark on 2017, we are coming off the heels of a year of great change and restructuring around the world. As we look to the next 12 months, we predict the changes we have seen in other arenas will also hold true for the tech landscape across the globe.  Our tech predictions for 2017 include:

Availability of Power vs Cost of Energy

The 2015/2016 decrease in industrial electrical energy costs in many parts of USA may have hidden the datacenter energy consumption problem.  We think this is one of the most stringent issues datacenters need to face. First, because in many other parts of the world, such as Europe, energy prices have continued to increase.  Second, because apart from cost, energy poses another issue: availability. With the ever-increasing size of datacenters, some approaching several MW of electrical power needed, delivering energy to a site becomes an increasingly challenging operation.  This scenario may bring sudden and unpleasant surprises to organizations. This is why we predict datacenter energy efficiency will be a hot topic in 2017 and beyond.

ARM based servers and solutions

The timing is right for ARM based technologies to increase adoption in 2017. The end of life of many previous generation Intel-based servers will bring many ARM server vendors in front of customers, who will take the opportunity to find alternatives to Intel. ARM server vendors have many more bullets to shoot now than few years ago, especially in terms of processor performance, features and software ecosystem ported and certified on ARM. Additionally, the recent ARM acquisition of the software company Allinea suggests a commitment to ARM in the server business by taking ownership of the HPC and datacenter application compatibility with ARM architectures.

Widespread Hyperconverged Infrastructure Adoption

In 2017 we will see hyperconverged solutions expanding their footprint into organizations, and covering additional usage areas. The case for HCI will be propelled by less expensive and more effective for distributed scale out storage, with the models proposed by the hyperscalers becoming gradually more mainstream and penetrating corporate IT. At the same time, there will be pressure on HCI vendors for pricing, due to increasing competition in the sector. The year 2017 will also define more clearly the leaders in the market, with the large legacy IT players, like HPE, EMC/Dell and VMware challenging the current leaders like Nutanix or SimpliVity.

Not to be underestimated, the arrival of Intel Sky Lake will trigger a cycle of server refresh that is also likely to facilitate the adoption of HCI solutions.

Containers

2016 saw an increased interested for containers. Docker is doing an excellent job in creating a framework to make this technology more usable and attractive. We predict this trend will continue in 2017, seeing more companies adopting containers in their production environments.

Open Technologies Adoption Becomes More Strategic

Enterprises are appreciating the benefits of adopting open source technologies like OpenStack, Docker, Hadoop and in 2017 open technologies will continue gaining market share within service providers and organizations. What makes open technologies attractive is not only price but also the maturity, breadth and depth that some of these platforms and software have reached. The strength of the communities behind the development and maintenance effort plays an important role, too.

These predictions are trends we've seen gaining momentum over the course of 2016. We're looking forward to 2017 to see what it brings to IT.

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About the Author

He holds an MSc in electrical engineering from University of Padua and an MBA from INSEAD.