No virtualization skills? Better get started

IT departments today may be looking to hire virtualization specialists, but as the technology becomes mainstream for servers, desktops, storage and networks, industry watchers and high-tech hiring managers say virtual know-how will become a standard requirement for many IT job candidates.

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“We see virtualization as having a significant impact on operations and infrastructure organizations in IT. Most will start dealing with the technology in a stovepipe fashion: server, desktop, network and storage,” says Ed Holub, research vice president at Gartner. “But organizations are beginning to treat virtualization more horizontally than vertically and pulling teams together to share that virtual know-how.”

With the most recent rash of virtualization projects, the technology area has become a subset of the server team in many IT organizations, analysts say. But as companies look to broaden their adoption, subject-area expertise in desktops, networks and storage will require those IT staffers to also become virtualization experts. (See related story, "Weighing the pros/cons of desktop virtualization.")

Ideally organizations would be able to devote some of their network specialists’ time, for instance, to building a virtualization strategy in collaboration with server and desktop teams.

“IT organizations will continue to need domain experts, not virtualization experts. Going forward, virtual talents will become expected and part of a standard skill set for system administrators,” says Andi Mann, vice president of research at Enterprise Management Associates.

Jake Seitz, enterprise architect at The First American Corp., in Santa Ana, Calif., developed what he calls a virtualization center of excellence when the company began putting virtual server and now desktop technology in place. He pulled IT staffers from several domains as well as dedicated a legal and financial expert to the group. The virtual team operates independently of other operations teams and their job is to own the virtual infrastructure.

“For the most part, members of the virtual team are devoted to it and they bring their domain expertise to that group, because each area has its unique nuances that need to be applied to our organization’s implementation,” Seitz says.

Seitz is among the lucky ones whose organization is large enough to support a separate group dedicated to virtualization. Industry watchers say such an approach will enable more seamless adoption of advanced technologies and broader communication among IT groups that for the most part still operate in silos.

“Companies need to establish cross-team working groups set up to make decisions from buying in the infrastructure and setting it up to understanding how to optimize the environment,” says Natalie Lambert, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

IT managers say for now they have to dedicate resources to virtualization exclusively, but they can already see the writing on the wall – especially in smaller IT shops.