2010 Prediction: Mark Urdahl, Virtual Instruments

Recession Might Be Over, but in 2010, Cost Optimization is Here to Stay

As I look out to 2010, it’s clear that the recovery from the global recession will be real, but gradual.  Cost optimization and efficiency (doing more with less) will still be the major focus for IT organizations in the New Year. This translates into two big trends: virtualization moving further into mission critical applications and consolidation moving from server to SAN. We’ll likely see even more organizations turning toward virtualization to reduce costs and improve overall network utilization.  And, as with any new deployment, we’ll most likely see hesitation and questions arise.

In 2009, we saw companies hesitate when it came to virtualizing mission-critical applications. To date, IT management has been reluctant to virtualize these applications for two primary reasons:  performance fears and problem resolution challenges.  Without the right tools it is very difficult to resolve performance and intermittent availability problems.  Trying to debug or optimize performance for an I/O-intensive virtualized application, connected to a complex Storage Area Network (SAN) that is also deployed with storage virtualization is major time-consuming exercise.   Today, IT attempts to get around these problems by either not virtualizing these applications or by throwing more hardware at the problem (over-provisioning) as a strategy to ensure performance and availability.  This approach is extremely inefficient and not sustainable given the pressures on IT budgets.

In order to be successful in deploying business-critical applications, enterprise IT managers will need to implement a real-time instrumentation and monitoring solution that provides a direct view into the virtualized infrastructure.  Such tools will enable immediate problem identification, accelerate resolution, and keep the applications running 24x7 at peak performance.

VMware has benefited from the trend of consolidation for many years now, but the low-hanging fruit of cost savings from server virtualization has already been implemented.  Our studies of a dozen Fortune 500 companies have consistently found that their corporate Fibre Channel SANs are utilized less than 10 percent on average.  This 10X over-provisioning means there is a massive opportunity for SAN consolidation, just like VMware has enabled for server consolidation. Very few enterprise IT shops understand this opportunity since they don’t have the tools installed to measure real-time SAN utilization and performance. Compounding the problem, SAN device vendors have minimal incentives to disclose this over-provisioning to their customers.

What’s the key to virtualization and optimization success?  Measurement.  Let’s face it.  You can’t optimize what you can’t measure, so a comprehensive understanding of asset utilization and employee productivity and how it affects end-user Service Level Agreements (SLAs) is essential. This understanding starts with deep visibility into and monitoring of both the physical and virtual IT infrastructure.  And, as we move into the New Year, understanding the impact of virtualizing mission-critical applications will undoubtedly be a key element in nearly every company’s IT cost optimization strategy.

For better or worse, similar to 2009, next year will be a year of great opportunity for IT managers who understand how to do more with less.  It all starts with data about the actual IT infrastructure.