Virtualization is more than a consolidation enabler as it is
literally a springboard to the cloud. But you have to plan
for this – it won’t happen automatically. You
need to have a model that helps to make your virtualization
foundation stable so that mission critical applications can reside
upon and exploit it.
Management technology, especially automation tools, will be key in
your virtualization endeavor. New processes will have to be
developed and older ones re-engineered to support this new
environment. Perhaps most importantly a culture change will
be necessary – especially if IT organizations want to reach
for the cloud. This means a breaking down of the historical
silos within IT and the introduction of new forms of collaboration
including virtualization (and cloud) competency centers.
Finally, you have to take steps to measure the effectiveness of
your virtualization investment across a range of stakeholder
perspectives. Being able to prove the value of your
virtualization investment is key to getting organizational
commitment to move to the next level of IT competitiveness, i.e.,
cloud computing.
At the Gartner CIO & IT Executive Summit 2010 on 23rd and
24th November in Mumbai, Cameron Haight will speak on the topic
‘After the Dust Settles: Maximizing your investments in
Virtualization’