Virtualization Myths and Facts

I just listened to a great Webinar about virtualization given by Gartner analyst Tom Bittman. Bittman is a deep expert on the topic. 

Some quick takeaways:  

Myth: "Virtualization is widely deployed." 

Fact: Only 19 percent of workloads are running in virtual machines. (About 25 percent of the global 500 are deploying virtualization.) 

Myth: "Virtualization is primarily about saving money." 

Fact: Large firms start virtualization to save money. But later on they realize that agility is a key benefit. 

Myth: "Virtualization is a commodity." 

Fact: Yes, you can get a hypervisor for free. But effective, truly beneficial virtualization is about much more. "So don't be caught up in offerings that focus on the short term," Bittman advised. Think five years out and plot your virtualization strategy carefully. "The solution you choose will be more and more like a private cloud for you," he said. 

Private cloud is the buzzword du jour. "Private cloud computing is one of the fastest growing trends," Bittman said. "More money will be spent on building private clouds than public clouds," in the years ahead.  

Virtualization adoption has been slow, but SMBs are now jumping on board. The wave is coming: By 2012 Gartner forecasts 58 million virtual machines. 

VMware's share is shrinking, but the pie is getting bigger, so no need to shed tears for the current market leader. "The vast majority of VMwware's customers will stay with them," Bittman said. But Microsoft is grabbing a very large share of the newcomers. 

 

Meanwhile, virtualization vendor Citrix is a force to be reckoned with and is not tied only to open source. "They can help you migrate" between solutions, Bittman said. 

On the other hand, Oracle, having acquired small fry Virtual Iron, is not a market leader in virtualization. "We don't expect Oracle to expand their influence [in virtualization] beyond the Oracle stack," he said.  

As the Webinar drew to a close, Bittman looked at the long list of questions sent in as he spoke. So many were about cloud computing that he decided to speak about the trend in general. 

Gartner predicts an exploding number of new cloud services providers to come on the scene. Not large generalists like Amazon, but small, vertically-focused players focused on niches like healthcare or finance. They'll be more expensive than larger providers yet their industry-specific knowledge will offer real value.

"Cloud computing is going to be relevant for every enterprise," Bittman concluded.