Virtualization in IT: Where is it Going?

Five years ago virtualized architecture in an IT shop was “virtually” unheard of. Today, virtualization is the new buzzword. IT shops the world over are turning to virtualization to answer many of their needs for server consolidation, server density, power savings, and rapid deployment of server solutions.

In the past I’ve seen 20 virtual servers run on a blade with 4 gigabytes of RAM and 2 dual core processors. Whiles these virtual servers were only providing printing, DNS, WINS, and domain functionalities, the thought that they could all be run on one server that cost no more than $5K to this day amazes me. With virtualization today allowing for a more segmented approach to deploying applications, the days of bundling multiple server based applications on one server are quickly going the way of the Dodo bird.

So, where is this leading? What does the future hold for virtualization? Those are extremely good questions.

Since virtualization has already proven itself in the server arena, the next proving ground will naturally be the virtualization of the user’s desktops. This can already be evidenced by VMware’s VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) environment that leverages VMware’s ESX Virtual Enterprise environment to provide users with a virtual desktop that all their own. While centralizing the desktop environment of users has already been accomplished with products like Citrix, VDI serves to provide the user with a centralized virtual desktop that’s all their own and not “shared” with any other users.

This in turn will eventually go one step further with scaled down laptops that connect through the internet to a company’s server architecture and connect from anywhere to their virtual desktop. A move such as this would cut the costs of today’s laptops drastically by allowing for a scaled down version running a minimal configuration for hardware. A move such as this will make the days of important files being lost to hard drive crashes while hardening security for systems. When an employee termination is performed, a simple click of a mouse not only disables their account but also cuts access to their computer and any company information they had on the system.

Turning back to the server world, virtualization will only improve. With companies like VMware and XEN fighting it out over the next several years for market dominance innovations are sure to come quickly. Current problems such as how to quickly and efficiently backup virtual servers will quickly be solved (probably by borrowing from snapshot technologies like those employed by Network Appliance) and new features and functionality will begin to pour out with every code release.

All of this makes it easier on the guys in the trenches during all of this; the systems administrators. I have been told that one system administrator can realistically support 200 virtual servers by himself without significantly impacting his other responsibilities. While this may or may not be true, virtualization certainly does make a system administrator’s job easier by providing him with less hardware to support and an easy means of supporting and maintaining the virtual servers that are running.

In the last five years virtualization has come so far and integrated itself into information technology to a degree that IT shops would never consider going back to standard server deployments. One can only imagine where virtualization will five years from now.