Computerworld’s virtualization face-off

Computerworld recently did a really interesting piece with columnists Frank Hayes and Mark Hall squaring off over virtualization technologies. The face-off was less about the technology and more about the “when” aspect of virtualization. Hayes said that 2008 would be the year “to wrap our brains around the whole virtualization idea.” But Hall disagreed.

In the article, Hayes writes:

Now it’s our turn to go virtual. Not because it’s easy or convenient — when was anything in IT ever easy or convenient? — but because it’s the only way we can move fast enough to do what users need.

When they need more server power for applications, we have to be able to deliver it immediately. Otherwise, they lose business.

When they need more storage, they want us to re-architect our disk farms. By the time we’re done, the opportunity is gone.

When they need more flexibility or security or capability, being able to move fast is a real advantage.

That’s what virtualization can deliver.

If we can figure it out.

And we’ll only figure it out one piece at a time.

That’s why 2008 needs to be the Year of Virtualization. We have to start somewhere, and this is the year to choose where – and wrap our brains around the whole virtualization idea.

Hall retorts:

Those readers who, like the two of us, are a bit long in the tooth undoubtedly recall the annual breathless announcements in the 1980s that local-area networks were about to become ubiquitous. The years came and went — 1982, 1983, 1984 … — with no discernible triumph of the LAN over, say, point-to-point networks. Then, one day, without any commotion, LANs were everywhere. They had conquered networking, but no one could say exactly when. History shifted, but no one knows exactly when.

That, too, will be the fate of virtualization.

I can’t argue with you, Frank, that virtualization solves many a problem today. And you cogently describe its value for companies using it now. But before our readers take your words of wisdom and join the march to virtualize their data centers, they need to take a moment to reflect on exactly where their IT pain hurts the most.

If, as you rightly point out, a CIO’s biggest issue is responding fast to business users’ needs, virtualization can be an excellent tool to quickly provision and deploy server or storage systems. However, if data center managers are under different pressures, virtual machines (VM) might just make things worse.

I think only time will tell whether 2008 is the year of virtualization or not. There are certainly enough people in the media and the industry stating that very opinion, and while I believe there is a lot of truth behind that statement, like Hall, I think there are a lot of issues to address before the technology can become mainstream. As vendors continue to enhance the technology and make it easier to work with, and as the IT staff continues to get educated on the who, what, where and why of virtualization, it has a great shot of reaching that goal. The question is can it accomplish all of that before the end of the year?

Or as Hall so eloquently put things, will virtual machines just “creep into our lives at a steady pace until one day we look up and see VMs everywhere, doing everything for everybody.”

Read the entire face-off article from Computerworld, here.