2010 Prediction: Basab Bandyopadhyay & Rahul M Joshi, Infosys
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Virtualization was a buzzword in 2008 when early adaptors were using it. In 2009 it went mainstream. One of the primary reasons for the large scale adoption of virtualization was the economic downturn of 2009. CIOs looked critically to cut costs through efficient usage of virtualization. Organizations have also innovated and used virtualization to differentiate themselves from competitors. In addition to cost effectiveness, we find that organizations are “business ready” to deal with the disruption caused due to virtualization and subsequent rise of innovative business models.
In 2010 virtualization will be one of the important levers in IT transformation journey. Virtualization will spawn multiple business models, each more innovative than other. CIO investment decisions will be influenced by the virtualization strategy adopted by the organizations.
In 2010, virtualization will be driven by the several factors like simplification, flexibility and commoditization in addition to cost-cutting and going “green.”
Virtualization will permeate to all layers of computing including software and desktop. While infrastructure virtualization is mainstream today, we expect software/application and desktop virtualization will gain adoption and will be embraced by enterprises. Organizations will move towards integrated virtualization strategies that will be managed by new virtualization management tools and governed by IT service Management frameworks like CoBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technologies) and ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library).
While virtualization has provided significant cost benefits to organizations, it also has challenged the existing management tools and processes by increasing operational complexity and server sprawl. Organizations will leverage ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) frameworks to manage these complexities and ensure that the IT organization remains agile and able to adapt to their changing business needs. Virtualization automation and management tools will evolve in 2010 to simplify operations and manage change in the virtual environment.
End user computing environments face the challenge of mobile workers and large number of desktops that organizations need to manage. Desktop virtualization will drive simplification of the environment and allow the CIOs to drive down cost and complexities of managing the environment. Significant adoption of virtual desktop solutions are envisaged in 201 as a result of to technology refreshes like Windows 7 rollouts and XP retirement. Adoption is expected to go mainstream by 2010 to mid-2011 to leverage the true potential of the virtual desktop technologies.
