Hu Yoshida, of HDS fame, spoke about a conference in his latest blog, and one of the topics was virtualization.
Hu says that users at a CIO panel commented that “the next step in virtualization is virtualized environments. Where you can swap out a compliance environment for instance and then bring it back later when it is needed”.
Exactly. When we speak about virtualization in specific tactical terms, such as storage virtualization for migration purposes, or server virtualization for consolidation purposes, we lose the higher potential of the concept – which is really to do two things: First, it should abstract the user from the infrastructure on thier way to and from the data they care about, and second, behind that abstraction should be a living, breathing, morphable blob that can alter itself in order to best fullfil the requirments from the top of the stack (user) or the bottom (data).
I like the fact that people are talking about the V word more openly, and with less visible disdain – even if it is in terms that are still too simplistic – such as “improved utilization”. Eventually people will come to grips with the fact that a fully integrated “Enterprise IT Virtualization” strategy will be the IT equivilant of the industrial revolution.
I wrote more on it in this weeks CW column.
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Steve Duplessie is the author of the “Steve’s IT Rants” blog, and the founder and Sr. Analyst of the Enterprise Strategy Group.
