2012 Prediction: Virtual Instruments

IT Vendors Causing ‘Virtual Stall?’

Virtualization is the IT trend that’s driving a fundamental change in how companies run their data centers, but many application owners are reluctant to make the switch because to them, it just adds risk. And much of the risk comes from the stove-piping of different IT disciplines. What could leading IT vendors to do reduce this risk? As a former “big vendor” insider, I have some suggestions. The big IT vendors could help reduce risk by:

• Opening up their APIs to others, so third parties and even larger customers could much more easily provide integratedtoolsets for the most common IT tasks such as provisioning, performance optimization, and replication. Most vendors pay lip service to interoperability by providing SNMP and SMI-S interfaces, but reserve their most valuable APIs for their own proprietary toolsets.
• Developing new systems with input not just from engineers, or from their most technical and vocal customers, but from the point of view of non-specialists. How often does a storage vendor ask server admins what their top challenges are, or changes they would like to see? As a former storage insider, I can tell you that the answer is pretty close to “never.”
• Developing configuration and support profiles for specific, class-leading applications. In an attempt to provide every conceivable option to its largest customers, vendors often develop to the highest common denominator and provide a near-infinite combination of knobs and dials, which only the most highly trained specialists can take advantage of.
• Agreeing to use a more common vocabulary. Today, in order to maintain differentiation, vendors commonly try to brand common functions with their own propriety naming and bundling. “Thin provisioning” and “dynamic provisioning” come to mind as an example. Whole industries maintain their own vernacular. Of course, this isn’t unique to IT. Try having a conversation with a doctor, a lawyer, or even an auto mechanic about their respective areas of expertise. How often have you had to ask “speak English please”? Sometimes, just speaking the same language can do wonders for cooperation.
• Recognizing that the #1 answer to learning how to use their gear is not more weeks of training, but a fundamental change in how they design their UI.

For the most part, I don’t see much movement on the part of vendors to help break down the internal walls of IT, but eventually, some will, and the market will reward them. Until then, users have three alternatives. First, just keep doing what you’re doing, ignore the increased risk of virtualization, and hope that everything will work out. Second, put as many applications as you can into the cloud or outsource. And third, look for tools that span disciplines and vendors, and train your IT people to use them. You won’t generally see these solutions from your big hardware vendors, but smaller IT management vendors often have these options available.