The conversation that first wrapped itself around virtualisation as being a cost saving tool seems to be unravelling a new focus on investing to grow its charter in the enterprise. Dubbed by Gartner as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, organisations would do well to plan for more growth of virtualisation in their portfolio. But it requires taking a holistic view including assessing the impact it will have on all IT resources and the data centre.
It’s an interesting twist in the tale. While companies began their virtualization story looking out for savings, that may not be a given any longer. What they need to be looking for is getting more out of the technology by growing their investment in it. For TEXPO this showcases the perfect story that bridges our focus on the data centre and cloud-based delivery models.
According to Gartner’s special report, virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge.
"Virtualisation now drives efficient IT from all angles, including data centre design, platform updates, and application and infrastructure modernisation, as well as traditional and new delivery models, such as infrastructure utility and cloud computing. However, virtualisation does take investment; the savings are not a given,” advises Philip Dawson, research vice president at Gartner.
Dawson’s analysis also goes on to note that as the technology matures, the next big thing will be automating the composition and management of virtualised resources. With the strong move towards storage and network virtualisation already underway, larger scale server virtualisation is a natural follow through.
For the TEXPO Research Team this domain remains a close watch, given the fact that environments across the Middle East continue to struggle with challenges in their server environment including underutilisation, server sprawl and infrastructure management issues.
For TEXPO, virtualisation is a critical component of our strategy especially since we want to be in a position to help our clients with their transformation right from the data centre through to the actual delivery of services. Going by industry estimates, it is clear that there is opportunity for growth, but challenges lie ahead. The answer, in our view lies in looking at the adoption of virtualisation for a host of different reasons.
We asked our CEO Dr Sarfaraz Alam to comment on the big picture. “The pure focus of looking at virtualisation to save costs is not longer relevant when it comes to the big picture. What we are telling customers is to focus their investments to grow the technology in their organisations to enable flexibility, reduce downtime and offer holistic benefits,” Dr Alam says.
So where do we go from here?
Gartner research estimates that more than 80 percent of enterprises today have a virtualisation program or project, but only 25 percent of all server workloads will be in a virtual machine (VM) by year-end 2010. While many IT leaders believe that they have virtualised their x86 servers, Gartner advises organisations to plan for two to three times the growth of virtualisation in the portfolio.
A consideration of the x86 server environment is a good place to start assessment especially since we see significant underutilised capacity. Going by the traditional model of one application per server, we are talking over 80 percent underused x86 capacity at any given point.
Interestingly, while underutilisation could offer the perfect case for cost saving measures, TEXPO’s view looks at how mature organisations leverage the value this technology offers to do more, including enabling faster deployments, reducing downtime and disaster recovery, facilitating a shared services model for IT offering variable usage based on business need and capacity planning. What they get right is holistic assessment that places benefits right next to the challenges they represent.
“It’s important when it comes to virtualisation considerations that we factor in the impact of the technology right through the chain. For example, any centralised IT management offers flexibility to administrators. However that means stronger investments in computing and data storage at the data centre level. We can take the consolidation, efficiency, flexibility and energy efficiency view when it comes to virtualisation deployment, however critical to success will be careful evaluation of potential roadblocks, especially improper analysis and poor security focus on the organisation’s part,” offers Dr Alam.
For TEXPO, the real charter lies in enabling our clients to plan better and understand the challenges they face rather than focusing on pushing the technology. “That’s the easy part,” says Dr Alam. “But that’s not what we want. What we want to build are customers with benefits for their business and for that to happen we need to show them how it can be done right. That’s when technology starts making sense.”
Here are key Gartner recommendations that we complied on what to watch for:
- Proper assessment of HVDs: When it comes to virtual desktops, Gartner estimates that Hosted Virtual Desktops are poised for explosive growth offering benefits that include end-user flexibility, efficiency, energy savings and other benefits, enabling administrators to manage desktops from a centralised location and end users to access their desktops from machines in any location. However, enterprises need to understand the strain this technology can place on their data centre infrastructures and operations, especially when thousands of employees use this platform type.
- Licensing: virtualised licensing continues to present a major stumbling block to widespread adoption of virtualisation. As vendors change their software pricing and associated license provisions to accommodate virtual use, negotiators must plan to spend an increased amount of time per contract to understand the effect of such changes on planned software use.
- Security: Although virtualisation is not inherently insecure, most virtualised workloads are being deployed insecurely. The latter is a result of the immaturity of tools and processes and the limited training of staff, resellers and consultants. As more workloads are virtualised, as workloads of different trust levels are combined and as virtualised workloads become more mobile, the security issues associated with virtualisation become more critical to address.
- Monitoring: Gartner recommends that at a minimum, organisations require the same type of monitoring they place on physical networks, so that they don't lose visibility and control when workloads and networks are virtualised. To reduce the chance of misconfiguration and mismanagement, they should favour security vendors that span physical and virtual environments with a consistent policy management and enforcement framework.
TEXPO Research Team
23rd January 2012
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