Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2016. Read them in this 8th Annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Steve McDonald, VP of Product, StrataCloud
2016: Managing IT infrastructure actually does get easier, and cheaper too.
In 2015, CIOs and CTOs heard a lot about containers, the Internet of Things, DevOps tools, Big Data and cloud security. It seems that one couldn’t move fast enough to evaluate, acquire and deploy these new technologies for the sake of business responsiveness. The reality is a bit different. Large companies also have budgetary constraints as well as a vast number of competing initiatives and priorities. Security and privacy can occupy weighty portions of strategy and spending in industries like healthcare, retail and financial services. Traditional companies with massive application portfolios are determining how to modernize the data center architecture, and replace or adapt core legacy systems to run optimally in distributed architectures. For next year, we see a focus on practical innovation. Here are some bright spots on the horizon that will make IT infrastructure more manageable and flexible next year:
1. Blurred lines between converged and hyper-converged infrastructure
Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) has generated considerable interest in IT circles in the past few years. With building blocks of compute and storage pre-integrated from companies like Nutanix and SimpliVity, the perception has been that this technology would be so much faster and simpler to deploy than converged infrastructure (CI) that it would make the latter obsolete. An IT organization could purchase a single SKU multiple times over, and plug the blocks together with minimal management overhead.
While HCI has delivered upon simplicity, IT leaders have realized that the technology doesn’t solve every issue in the data center. It is most ideal for virtual desktop infrastructure and remote office virtualization workloads with a linear relationship between compute and storage as they grow. HCI can be challenged in relational data and analytics applications where data can grow exponentially faster than compute and where low latency and ability to handle a high transactional volume are critical.
As a result, in 2016 we’ll see a resurgence of CI, with IT organizations deploying a hybrid infrastructure of HCI and CI solutions as needed. IT management tools are now maturing to provide assistance in deploying and configuring CI environments. This gives IT organizations flexibility to choose the type of converged infrastructure that’s most appropriate for the application and business need.
2. Commoditization of hypervisors
VMware has ruled enterprise virtualization installations for years, but that dominance may be coming to an end next year. Competing solutions from Red Hat as well as smaller companies such as Nutanix are maturing to the point where CIOs are giving them a serious look. These alternative hypervisor solutions are popular because they’re a lot more affordable than VMware, which has looked more and more like Microsoft in recent years by way of its expensive licensing structure. It’s telling that even Apple recently cancelled VMware for open source software, KVM. Moving away from VMware, however, is no walk in the park. It requires some internal engineering expertise to navigate a new hypervisor platform; the switch won’t be viable for all companies. Some will wait and watch as Apple and others develop best practices for working with this next generation of hypervisors and as the OpenStack community begins to deliver more industrialized, well supported alternatives to current data center management tools.
3. Bimodal IT
There’s been a lot of buzz about bi-modal IT; within large companies in the midst of digital transformation, it’s a smart strategy. Bimodal IT doesn’t necessarily mean splitting the IT organization into separate groups with distinct leaders, but it could mean having two layers of infrastructure and management: one supporting core, multi-tier applications and a secondary parallel infrastructure supporting scale out applications, in a private or public cloud. The benefits of bimodal IT are faster innovation and easier ramp-up processes to support business-forward initiatives such as the Internet of Things or omni-channel integration. The drawback: recruiting people to work on the core “keeping the lights on” team may be a hard sell. Over time, as DevOps methodologies become pervasive within the enterprise, I predict that everything will shift back to the single IT organization.
In closing, it’s hard to predict what will happen in 2016 due to the rapid and unpredictable nature of business today. And perhaps that is the final prediction: no matter your industry or size, count on change coming from any direction at any time. IT organizations that are not only prepared for disruption, but able to drive disruption, will win the hearts and minds of their CEOs and boards.
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About the Author
Steve McDonald is VP of Product at StrataCloud
Steve McDonald is a senior technology business leader with 20 years of experience in hands-on implementation, enterprise IT executive leadership and IT product and services go-to-market strategy. As Vice President of Product at StrataCloud, Steve applies his passion for creating world-class solutions to the refinement and growth of the StrataCloud product portfolio.
