BANGALORE: In line with analyst predictions, virtualisation is making a lot of headway among enterprises both in India and globally. Companies have been showing a lot of interest in the technology with many having already virtualized their storage infrastructure and looking to consolidate server systems.

Gartner's predicts virtualization to be the highest-impact trend changing infrastructure and operations through 2012. But, there is still a long way to go as less than five percent of global servers are virtualized, and the adoption is still at a nascent stage, according to Microsoft. One of the main reasons being that customers are unsure of how to go about implementing virtualization and seek guidance and support in the actual implementation process.

However, according to Philip Dawson, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, "Virtualization is hardly a new concept; storage has already been virtualized — albeit primarily within the scope of individual vendor architectures — and networking is also virtualized". "However, as both server and PC virtualization become more pervasive, traditional IT infrastructure orthodoxy is being challenged and is changing the way business works with IT."

As hypervisor prices drop sharply and management costs decrease, it could prove a feasable option for even mid-level and small companies.

Virtualisation addresses various layers of IT infrastructure and has varied definitions. Going by EMC, which acquired Vmware, vrtualization is a "technology that enables logical representations of physical resources (while preserving the user interfaces for those resources) to provide an abstraction layer that optimizes resources and improves flexibility." While doing so, Virtualization removes resource limits and improves utilization."  For some others it is all about innovation. 'Innovation through virtualisation' is IBM's focus. According to IBM, "A successful approach towards implementing Virtualization lies in proper planning."

Planning, strategy and management are key areas that need to be worked on for a smooth transition to virtualization.

According to some, virtualisation is also described in terms of a technique rather than a specific technology, applied to areas as diverse as servers, storage, applications, desktops and networks. This aspect of virtualisation makes it all the more difficult to calculate the RoI and justify investment, however, companies now offer various tools to simplify RoI calculation.

A huge part of the complexity around getting started with virtualization can be also be attributed to the different types of products and tools available in the market.

The following articles describe various virtualization techniques used by some key vendors of the technology. The articles and interviews attempt to answer some crucial areas related to virtualization.

Read on ..

Virtualisation challenges and strategies
Craig Slattery, Director, Enterprise Solutions, APJ outlines challenges and strategies to simplify virtualization 

Tightening security in a virtual set up
Read on for some tips on handling security in a virtual network and more from Pallavi Kathuria, Director, Server Business Group, Microsoft India

Virtualisation impacting data center economics
Apart from physical planning a proper layout of workload deployment needs to be developed, advises Rajesh Saha, VP - Enterprise Systems, Systems & Technology Group, IBM India/SA

Applied Materials: reducing cycle time with virtualisation
In addition to reduction in energy costs, it improves procure to deploy cycle time especially for our software development groups: Nagraj Bhat, Director, Global Information Services- India Delivery Center, Applied Materials 

Storage virtualization to manage data explosion
Storage virtualisation can help enterprises consolidate their storage infrastructure, improve storage utilisation and efficiency and reduce costs to manage spiraling data volumes better

A case for virtualisation
"Every new investment has to be made considering its cost effectiveness in the short and medium term as well", Basant Rajan, CTO – India, Symantec C

Virtualization: Major component of dynamic IT
As virtualization impacts all aspects of the enterprise – from business applications to networks – it's now seen as a key enabler of IT effectiveness initiatives which are balanced across applications, delivery and infrastructure

Can virtualisation reduce energy costs?
Read on to know more about how virtualisation can support your efforts in going Green from Ganesh Mahabala, Regional Director - India & SAARC, VMware