Andi Mann at CIO.com posted a great article on challenges in adoption of virtualization and proposed a new term - VM stall. It refers to the apparent limit in adoption of virtualization within companies — those who start tend to virtualize the low hanging fruit and virtualization efforts seem to stall around 20-30% of the applications. Read his article

I agree with Andi that virtualization is not as widely adopted as everybody makes it look. By now, most IT shops have done something, so there is a widespread notion of “everybody’s doing it”. Also, it tends to be picked for new projects (which is a good thing).

I don’t think we should set “virtualization goals” — say at 50%, 90% or 100%  - virtualization is not an end in itself. That said, it is an essential enabling technolgogy and I do believe it will become the norm within the next few years — every new server will be virtualized from the start; likely it will be either shipped this way by the hardware manufacturer or the OS will provide the layer by default.

That said, the let’s look at the possible reasons for the current stall in adoption. Based on my experience, I would propose three:

1. Not enough value in virtualization alone: Server virtualization as a solution is mostly about server consolidation. As a result, companies tend to consolidate the non-critical apps, the ones that can be packed in small boxes. Once that is done, the value of moving the bigger apps is simply not there — there will be no consolidation benefit. The bigger apps need more resources, not less. Virtualization alone does not help much (and can make things harder in some cases if not properly implemented).

2. Cost: To get most of the virtualization benefits, you end up needing very expensive hardware — SAN for everything, fast storage interconnect, lots of network bandwidth, etc., and lots of software licenses, both for the virtualization and for the management of all the pieces. Many projects simply can’t justify that cost. Not all virtualization products have this characteristic, but the default choice does, so it skews the statistics.

3. Complexity: the mere mention of a “virtualization team” (in IT departments) shows that the technology, in its current incarnation, is not ubiquitous enough. Virtualization was not (and is not) supposed to become yet another silo. All IT professionals should be skilled in virtualization. If the technology is so complex that it requires separate virtualization team, then we need better technology.

Best regards,
- Peter

PS The solution to the above is in cloud technologies, where virtualization is an enabler to further abstraction and encapsulation. Good cloud technology - like the one we have here at CA|3Tera — achieves simplification and flexibility that we have not had before. This helps overcome the 3 factors I listed above and move adoption beyond the stall limit. Watch this space for further posts on how this happens.

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We started 3Tera to radically ease the way IT deploys, maintains and scales – MANAGES - applications. Our AppLogic® cloud computing platform provides the foundation of our partners’ orchestration of cloud services for public and private clouds around the world. Today, we’re taking the next step in moving toward making cloud computing mainstream by joining CA.

CA and 3Tera share a common vision for the future of cloud computing, and we are excited about the opportunities that this acquisition will create for our customers, partners and their cloud users.

This is a historic moment in Cloud Computing. The significance of this acquisition is a heck of a lot more than just a land grab in a hot space. We are confident that as a team, CA and 3Tera, will extend our leadership of the cloud computing market.

We are honored, given the plethora of Cloud Computing companies that have emerged in the last few years, that CA has chosen us. We really are!

It would probably be arrogant to suggest that we, in turn, chose CA. So I won’t suggest that. But the fact is, we had many options for the future and this is the one that excited us the most.

Now, there are only two kinds of people thinking about Cloud Computing: those who believe it is the future of information technology and those who are in complete denial.

I’ve been around a long time, probably longer than most of the readers of this post. During this time, I have seen three major paradigm shifts in IT.

For my first 20 years in this game, Moore’s Law was, as it always has been, and still will be for a while, in effect. Computers became exponentially more powerful, faster and cheaper. But, for those 20 years it was big central computers doing everything.

So, the first paradigm shift was away from these big centralized systems to client server or distributed systems. There were those who had the vision that inexpensive work stations and servers, connected over a network, would take on much of the load that the big central computers were processing. And there were also those who were in denial.

The second big shift was the rise of the browser and eCommerce. Some of you may be surprised that I did not say the Internet. The fact is, though, Internet technology was around for years before there was a consumer-based Internet, deployed by the government as a way to interconnect various agencies. It was known as the ArpaNet. The browser put a friendly graphical user interface on top of it and eCommerce was born.

There were those who had a vision that the Internet would be a common way for businesses and consumers to communicate and become widely used for effecting financial transactions. And there were those who were in denial.

The third shift is Cloud Computing. Computing is pervasive. It is no longer something used and accessed by an elite few. Computing is as much a part of life as telephone, television, electricity, etc.

So, the natural evolution of computing is for it to become a utility that anyone can tap into, like other utilities, consuming only what one needs–no more, no less– but always having enough available capacity when needed.

This is Cloud Computing – the encapsulation of applications as autonomous services, abstracted from infrastructure that its users do not care about, except that it’s available and reliable when needed – services that can be available anytime, anywhere, when called upon.

There are those who believe Cloud is the future and there are those in denial.

Like distributed systems, which became pervasive when the ability to precisely manage networks of servers and work stations became available; and, like the Internet, which became pervasive when the ability to manage dynamic web sites securely with high performance; so will go Cloud Computing.

I’ve heard some compare what is going on now to the internet bubble of the ‘90s. I’ve actually heard it referred to as the Cloud bubble. The big difference between the Internet bubble and the Cloud bubble is that today’s economy doesn’t dictate the kind of crazy valuations we saw in the ‘90s (or maybe today’s economy is just more realistic than that of the Internet bubble).

But they have something very significant in common, I believe.

During the Internet bubble, everyone and his brother with a web site, from giant infrastructure companies to retailers of boutique niche products, were perceived to be the future. When the dust settled though, most couldn’t maintain their value – except for the Internet infrastructure providers, that is. It was not just anyone with an Internet presence. It was mostly those who enabled the Internet – who provided the infrastructure to deal with it – to manage it!

Just as everyone tried to stake a claim to a piece of the Internet in the ‘90s, now there are a gazillion companies with Cloud presence. When the dust settles, though, the long term value will be retained for the shareholders of the companies that provide the infrastructure, enabling capabilities and management of Cloud Computing.

CA is a management company. Their mission has always been and remains centered on the management of information technology. Their ability to adapt and manage each generation of technology has enabled them to thrive through all of these shifts.

While there are several management vendors out there, we see most figuring out how to shoehorn customers’ needs into what they already have. But tails can only wag dogs for a short period of time. The big winners will be those who adapt and evolve what they have into real, more than wannabe, Cloud Computing management.

That’s the historic statement. CA has drawn that line in the sand, and we’re thrilled to be part of it.

The leading innovator of IT management technology and the leading innovator of Cloud Computing technology are now one and the same!

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