* The promise and threat of the virtualization movement
Today I wanted to point you to an article in one of our Signature Series special issues. This special report is on YOU. That’s right, our readers. For the past six years now we take a look at some of the more interesting aspects of our readers IT lives (sometimes we explore their non-IT lives as well).
In the first article I wanted to point you to, (written by jocummings@comcast.net) we talk about the promise and threat of the virtualization movement. Over the next five years, new data center technologies such as virtualization, Web-centric computing, on-demand computing and autonomic computing will become entrenched. Network professionals will then find themselves free of the more mundane tasks that today take up much of their days and ready to tackle more strategic projects – faster and more efficiently.
Of course, that’s sort of what has some people concerned. One user in our story says that eventually, we’ll reach the point where we’ll literally have virtualization of service levels. And suddenly, we’ll have virtualized just about everything the data center offers.
And that’s the rub. After weathering the dot-com bust and the down economy, will they have survived only to virtualize themselves out of a job in five years?
Most IT organizations are finding virtualization lets them keep staffing levels flat, even as projects and customers increase. But network executives looking ahead five years to this new era of data center automation would do best to hone some new skills and polish up some old standbys, our author says.
First should come studying up on new data center technologies, be they big platforms such as IBM’s On Demand or HP’s Adaptive Enterprise, or point virtualization solutions from vendors like Opsware, Softricity, Topspin Communications and VMware. Network professionals who readily understand not only how virtualization works, but also how best to deploy it, will be at a premium over the next few years.
For more on this story see: https://www.nwfusion.com/you/2004/0726future.html
