C-Change 2013: 'Virtualization is an evolution, not revolution'

BANGALORE, INDIA: Someone termed it 'shared resource', someone else said, 'it transcends beyond server, desktop and network' and someone even went to the extent of saying, 'it is about running any application on any hardware without spending money'.

Well, they were all giving a shot on defining one particular technology that every chief information officer (CIO) in an enterprise has either tried their hands on, or is bucking up to, which is virtualization. Virtualization is no alien term today, thanks to all the hypes and hopes around it.

When asked to describe, 'What virtualization means in a layman'a language', a panel comprising of S Ramaswamy, executive director, IT, IOCL, Mahesh Mathur, CIO, DLF, Sekar Das Gupta, Venkatesh Swaminathan, country head, The Attachmate Group and Samir Mandal, CIO, Haldia Petrochemicals, with V S Parthasarathy, group CIO, EVP, Group M&A, finance & accounts, member, Group Executive Board, M&M Group as moderator thus set the agenda for the topic, 'Re-inventing IT with virtualization towards a cloud path'.

Everybody on the panel agreed that although they have more or less tried their hands on virtualization, they are yet to see its benefits. While some are yet to figure out where to begin, others are wary of issues it brings along with.

Swaminathan said: "Before starting ones journey for virtualization, every company has to analyse whether in the present circumstance they require virtualization or not. They have to do their own homework before going for it."

There are others who are disappointed by it since it did not turn out to be as cost effective as marketed by IT companies. So, it is yet to transform their businesses.

Many went for virtualization thinking they will be able to reduce IT cost by going the opex way. However, soon realised that cost is very high for opex model in the beginning. It might gradually come down once number of physical servers and other components are reduced. There is also a need for a suite of vendors to bring the cost virtualization down,

The panel also pondered on standards around virtualization, which according to them has to evolve. There were also issues with regards to software and hardware compliance and compatibility in virtual environment, which came to fore during the discussion

The panel sad that there is no transparency with regards to licence and so there is a need for collaboration between various agents. Today multiple vendors sell multiple forms of virtualization software, so they should agree to some to a standard solution and resolve the confusion among the CIO community, it added.

Swaminathan said that enterprises who are deploying virtualization have to make sure that all applications are server and power agnostic. The pace of virtualization adoption is slow because it is an 'evolution, not revolution', he added.

The panel went on to highlight issues such as security and paucity of skilled professionals who can handle virtual environments.