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Security automation: The next wave Security counterattack How to SOC it to the bad guys Visa: Taking on Web services with resolve Your opinion: Tech talk Q&A: When trust isn't enough

In the first of an ongoing user discussion series, four IT executives shared their thoughts on hot new data center technologies. They all agree that the flexible new infrastructures they’re building have a major upfront benefit — lower total cost of ownership — and each suggests a favorite young technology. Participating in the discussion, moderated by Signature Series Executive Editor Julie Bort, are: Tony Adams, IT analyst, J.R. Simplot, Boise, Idaho; Matthew Dattilo, vice president and CIO, PerkinElmer, Wellesley, Mass.; Carmine Iannace, manager, IT architecture, Welch's, Concord, Mass.; and Rael Paster, head of collaboration services IT, Serono, Geneva, Switzerland.

When thinking about your infrastructure over the next few years, which emerging technologies are most important to your plans and why?

Adams: Virtualization of servers and storage are our two most significant infrastructure initiatives. Both have been underway for more than a year and have proven successful enough to warrant more aggressive adoption. We have to reduce our accumulated server sprawl and prevent [more] sprawl. We have to be more flexible, and virtualization is the ultimate protection against initial sizing errors or unplanned growth. Our Intel server virtualization strategy is 100% VMware ESX with a storage-area network (SAN ). These two technologies complement each other so well that we consider their adoption to be co-requisites. We also must have a seamless disaster-recovery capability. ESX with a SAN-to-SAN remote mirror is a great disaster-recovery strategy for us.

Iannace: At Welch’s, the extended enterprise already is incorporated into our business model and, to a degree, in our IT systems. We currently use a combination of Plumtree Enterprise Portal, Oracle and a number of business intelligence tools [such as Noetix ] to collaborate with our partners and produce unique, up-to-the-minute views of sales and marketing data. In the next 18 months, we plan to allow our strategic partners not only to view but also to participate actively in live business transactions in an interactive manner.

Wireless technologies such as RFID will increase the speed and effectiveness of order and inventory tracking in manufacturing facilities and warehouses. We will see a great increase in the use of short-range wireless technologies akin to Bluetooth and ultra wideband. Forget about the ‘last mile’ — it’s the final 10 or 20 feet.

Paster: Application service provider (ASP) offerings, service-oriented architectures (SOA ), on-demand/pay-for-use models, server and storage virtualization and convergence are on the agenda for the next 18 to 60 months. Many organizations are running IT as an internal "business" these days - aligning with the needs of the business to be able to charge for these services based on consumption. Therefore ASP and SOA models are strategic and in some sense mandatory for the future of IT departments in most enterprises. Business users within the organization who see that [their] service-level agreements are met will be happier to foot the bill when they see how competitive it is to in-source vs. outsource the service.