Virtualization: The Ultimate Catalyst for Aligning Business and IT?

By Kirby Wadsworth
published: Monday, October 06 2008

Despite recent publicity, the concept of virtualization is nothing new.  You have been using virtualization for decades in your everyday interaction with information technologies - you probably just did not realize it - which is exactly what makes virtualization so powerful. 

When we send files to a print spooler, we are using a simple form of virtualization.  Before spoolers, applications and printers were tightly coupled.  The application sent files directly to the printer itself.  If the printer was out of ink, paper, or otherwise offline, the application experienced the effect, often freezing or crashing as a result.  Today, regardless of the physical condition of the printer, modern spooler software simulates an ‘all-clear' response to the application, and stores the file for future printing.  By creating a virtual printer, we have uncoupled the application from the impact of an error-prone physical printer.

All types of virtualization uncouple access to a resource from that particular resource's physical location.  Virtualization now appears in two general types - internal and external.  Internal virtualization makes one resource - a server for instance - appear to be many.  External virtualization makes many resources - disk drives for instance - appear to be one.  

Server virtualization, a form of internal virtualization, is a popular theme.  Server virtualization software decouples the operating system from the physical server, allowing many instances of an operating system to run on one physical server.  Again, the concept is not new - mainframe computers have had this capability for decades.  Now the concept applies to industry-standard computing, with many products competing in this space - VMware, Xen, and Microsoft's anticipated entry all having gained recent notoriety.  Server virtualization has reached mainstream status among IT buyers looking for cost savings and the ability to rapidly bring new servers online.  According to IDC, the savings can be significant.  Server virtualization can provide as much as a 50% reduction in the number of physical servers required, thus reducing floor space, power, and cooling cost.

Storage virtualization is another hot topic today.  According to new research by TheInfoPro, 50% of storage production environments at Fortune 1000 organizations are targeted to be virtualized by 2009.  Storage virtualization is an example of external virtualization, making storage resources - disk drives, arrays, even tape - look like a one large pool.  Storage virtualization uncouples logical access to data from the physical storage equipment containing the data.  Changes to physical storage no longer affect applications.  Because the pool is virtual, disk failures are tolerated, equipment can be replaced, or the entire pool can be expanded on the fly with no impact.

Regardless of where it is implemented in the IT infrastructure, this concept of decoupling offers very powerful business benefits including cost savings - in both OPEX and CAPEX, and increased availability and security.  Often these financial impacts alone justify virtualization projects.  However, virtualization promises a more strategic and long term benefit - the improved alignment of IT services to business needs.