Going mainstream
We are moving into a new era where virtualization will permeate every aspect of computing. Every processor, server, application and desktop will have virtualization capabilities built into its core. This will give IT a far more flexible infrastructure where the components of computing become dynamic building blocks that can be connected and reassembled on the fl y in response to changing business needs. In fact, three years from now, we will no longer be talking about virtualization as the next frontier in enterprise technology. It will simply be assumed. For example, today we normally assume that our friends, family and neighbours have high-speed Internet access from their homes. This was not the case a few years ago, when many were using sluggish dialup lines to access the Internet or had no access at all. High-speed Internet is now in mainstream, as it will be for virtualization. Virtualization will be expected; it will be a given within the enterprise. As this occurs, the conversation within IT circles will shift from the question of how to virtualize everything to the question of what business problems can be solved now that everything is virtualized.
Virtualization and application delivery
The most profound impact of virtualization will be in the way organizations deliver applications and desktops to end users. In many ways, applications represent the closest intersection between IT and the business. Your organization’s business is increasingly represented by the quality of its user facing applications. Whether large ERP solutions, custom web applications, e-mail, e-commerce, client-server applications or SOA, your success in IT today depends on ensuring that these applications meet the business goals. Unfortunately, trends such as mobility, globalization, offshoring, and e-commerce are moving users further away from headquarters, while issues like data centre consolidation, security and regulatory compliance are making applications less accessible to users.
These opposing forces are pushing the topic of application delivery into the limelight. It is forcing IT executives to consider how their infrastructures get mission-critical, data centre-based applications out to users to lower costs, reduce risk and improve IT agility. Virtualization is now the key to application delivery. Today’s leading companies are employing virtualization technology to connect users and applications to propel their businesses forward.
Virtualization in the enterprise
The seeds of virtualization were first planted over a decade ago, as enterprises began applying mainframe virtualization techniques to deliver Windows applications more efficiently with products such as Citrix® Presentation Server™. These solutions enabled IT to consolidate corporate applications and data centrally, while allowing users the freedom to operate from any location and on any network or device, where only screen displays, keyboard entry and mouse movement traversed the network. Today, products like Citrix® XenApp™ (the successor to Presentation Server) allow companies to create single master stores of all Windows application clients in the data centre and virtualize them either on the server or at the point of the end user. Application streaming technology within Citrix XenApp allows Windows-based applications to be cached locally in an isolation environment, rather than to be installed on the device. This approach improves security and saves companies millions of dollars when compared to traditional application installation and management methods.
Virtualization is also impacting the back end data and logic tier of applications with data centre products such as Citrix® XenServer™ and VMware ESX that virtualize application workloads on data centre servers. While these products are largely being deployed to reduce the number of physical servers in the data centres, the more strategic impact will be found in their ability to dynamically provision and shift application workloads on the fl y to meet end user requirements. The third major area concerning the impact of virtualization will be the corporate desktop, enabled by products such as Citrix® XenDesktop™. The benefits of such solutions include cost savings, but they also enable organizations to simplify how desktops are delivered to end users in a way that dramatically improves security and the end user experience (compared to traditional PC desktops). From virtualized servers in the data centres to virtualized end users desktops, the biggest impact of virtualization in the enterprise will be found within an organization’s application delivery infrastructure
Seeing the big picture
The mass adoption of virtualization technology will certainly require new skills, roles and areas of expertise within organizations and IT departments. Yet the real impact of virtualization will not hinge on the proper acquisition of new technical skills. Rather, by making the most of the virtualization opportunity, organizations will have to focus on breaking down traditional IT silos and adopt end-to-end virtualization strategies. Most IT departments today are organized primarily around technology silos. In many organizations, we find highly technical employees who operate on separate IT “islands,” such as servers, networks, security and desktops. Each group focuses on the health and well-being of its island, making sure that it runs with efficiency and precision. Unfortunately, this stand-alone approach is debilitating IT responsiveness, causing pundits like bestselling author Nicholas Carr to ask whether IT even matters to business anymore. To break this destructive cycle, IT employees must take responsibility for understanding and owning business processes that are focused horizontally (from the point of origin in the data centre all the way to the end users they are serving), building bridges from island to island. IT roles will increasingly require a wider, more comprehensive portfolio of expertise around servers, networking, security and systems management. IT personnel will need to have a broad understanding of all these technologies and how they work together as the focus on IT specialization gives way to a more holistic IT mindset.
Seeking experts in delivery
The new IT roles will require an expertise in delivery. IT will need to know how to use a company’s delivery infrastructure to quickly respond to new requirements coming from business owners and end users alike. IT specialization will not completely disappear, but it will not look anything like the silo entrenchment and technical specialization we see today. From this point forward, IT professionals will increasingly be organized around business process optimization to serve end users and line of business owners, rather than around independent technologies sitting in relative isolation. Across the board, the primary organizing principle in IT will shift from grouping people around technology silos to organizing them around common delivery processes. The companies that make this transition successfully will thrive, while those that do not will struggle to compete in an increasingly demanding and dynamic business world. IT organizations of the future will need to develop professionals who can see the parts as a whole and continually assess the overall health of the delivery system, responding quickly to changing business requirements. Employee work groups will continue to form around common processes, but the focus will be less about highly specialized knowledge and more about the efficiency of frequently repeated processes. IT professionals who understand the deep technical intricacies of IP network design, for example, will be in less demand than those who understand best practices in application delivery.
Guidelines for Staying in and Ahead of the Game
If you are not testing the waters of virtualization, you may already be behind. Experiment with virtualization now. Acquire applications and consider how to deliver them as part of your IT strategy. Three key recommendations are: n Change the mindset of your IT organization to focus on delivery of applications rather than installing or deploying them. Think about “delivery centres” rather than data centres. Most IT organizations today continue to deploy and install applications, although industry analysts advise that traditional application deployment is too complex, too static and costs too much to maintain, let alone to try to keep up with changes in the business. Delivering on the vision of an IT organization that is aligned with business goals requires an end-to-end strategy of efficiently delivering business applications to users.
- Place a premium on knowledge of applications and business processes when hiring and training IT employees. IT will always be about technology, but do not perpetuate today’s “island” problem by continuing to hire and train around deep technical expertise in a given silo. If that happens, IT will continue to foster biased mindsets that perceive the world through a technologically biased silo lens, the opposite of what is needed today. IT leaders will increasingly need to be people who understand business processes. Like today’s automotive technicians, they will have to be able to view and optimize the overall health of the system, not the underlying gears and valves - or bits and bytes.
- Select strategic infrastructure vendors who specialize in application delivery. Industry experts agree that the time is right to make the move from static application deployment to dynamic application delivery. IT will continue to use vendors that specialize in technical solutions that fit into various areas, such as networking, security, management and even virtualization. What is important, however, is forming a strategic relationship with a vendor that focuses not on technology silos, but on application delivery solutions. The vendor should be able to supply integrated solutions to incorporate virtualization, optimization and delivery systems that inherently work with one another, as well as the rest of your IT environment.
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