Few users—regardless of technology segment—believe that virtualization will have little or no impact on their infrastructure management processes and tools
ESG research respondents across five IT disciplines exhibit a desire for more effective management tools. In order to explore this topic in more detail, respondents with knowledge of their organization’s server, storage, and/or networking operations were also asked about the impact of server virtualization on their functional technology management processes and tools (see below graphic).
Few users—regardless of technology segment—believe that virtualization will have little or no impact on their infrastructure management processes and tools. In all segments, the majority of respondents believe virtualization will have “some” impact on existing management processes. These users expect that some of their management functionality will ultimately be subsumed by their virtualization software platform, but they will still leverage existing tools. A significant percentage of users in each technology segment, however, believe that server virtualization will have a “significant” impact on current management strategies. These organizations believe that, over time, all or most of their domain-specific management tasks will ultimately be managed by their virtualization software platform. This is especially true in the case of server administrators.
IT vendors—and especially those offering management software—take note: This data reinforces the challenges and requirements of existing virtualization investments. The next phase of server virtualization demands tighter integration and cross-functional virtualization-aware management tools. Users appear to be flexible and open-minded when it comes to who provides those tools and where they “live” in the IT stack.
