The Next Phase of Virtualization

At this point, most companies have dabbled with virtualization in some shape or form and it is becoming more accepted as a viable platform. As virtualization matures, it will become less about hardware and more about how to efficiently manage a virtualized data center environment that has impact company-wide.

Companies need to start viewing virtualization holistically. They don’t fully understand the implications of deploying virtualization and that there are software and security considerations in play. From a business standpoint, when everything is running on one virtualized server, how do you account for the cost internally? There is a need to revisit internal charge codes and develop protocols for cost allocation and accounting. The same goes for troubleshooting. Which department should assume responsibility for addressing any technical issues that arise? Many companies currently separate IT and datacenter line items, but implementing virtualization will require them to be folded into one cost.

The evolution of virtualization, therefore, is as much about managing maturity as it is about technological innovation, which paves the way for managed service providers.