Despite progress in virtualization, much development still remains. With predictions that virtualization will become pervasive, this research highlights forthcoming challenges and strategic issues facing IT planners. Register now for this free Gartner report sponsored by Dell and Intel to receive important advice on how to deal issues such as heterogeneity, resources and performance optimization, and the increasing fragmented tool market.
The Great Virtualization Dilemma of the Next
Decade: What You Need to KnowGartner RAS Core Research Note G00164938, George J. Weiss, 11 February 2009, R3098 12172009
Despite progress in virtualization, much development still remains. With predictions that virtualization will become pervasive, this research highlights forthcoming challenges and strategic issues facing IT planners. It contains advice on how to deal with issues such as heterogeneity, resource and performance optimization, and the increasingly fragmented tool market.
Key Findings. Heterogeneous virtualization will be the third of three stages in virtualization that gradually solves problems stemming from pervasive virtual machines implemented across heterogeneous platforms.
. If allowed to proliferate, ad hoc approaches to virtualization, without a master plan as suggested in this research, will result in "unruly" data centers of silos, fragmented tools, internal power and control conflicts, and poorly managed operations and processes.
. There are three use cases in which heterogeneous virtualization will become important - peer-to-peer workload migrations, optimized workload placement and integrated architectural consolidation.
Recommendations. Apply the three use cases outlined in this research dealing with peer-to-peer migration, optimized placement and architectural consolidation to soften the impact of virtualizing data center heterogeneous environments.
. Create a team to scout, evaluate and measure the effectiveness of latest-generation tools that transcend capacity planning and performance that also measure power consumption, security compliance, energy efficiency and other service-level variables with analytic and self-learning properties as part of a data-mining repository.
. Use the proposed four-quadrant model to avoid a chaotic and ad hoc approach to virtualization by balancing the efficiencies and benefits of scale-out and scale-up architectures.
. Adopt our five-stage planning process in evolving a strategic IT infrastructure approach to a progressively more mature, functional and integrated virtualization foundation.2 ANALYSIS . Stage 2 is characterized by increasing interoperability and the mobility of virtual machines (VMs) in systems and across networks. 1.0 Overview Examples of these solutions include VMware's VMotion technology Despite good progress, we are still far from reaching the bliss and similar "live migration" capabilities planned for Microsoft promised by virtualization. Much of the technology suffers from lack Hyper-V and Xen-based solutions. These capabilities help improve of interoperability, immature management tools, silo effects and a an enterprise IT's degree of agility in optimally and quickly deploying host of other issues. Here, we present the forthcoming challenges applications to target systems over networks.and strategic issues facing IT planners with our advice on how to deal with issues such as heterogeneity, especially as vendors seek new control points from which to gain competitive locks in . Stage 3 is characterized by an environment in which several the market and in user accounts. Understanding the fundamental further advances help drive the use of virtualization. VMs will be problems will help users make more-sound tactical and strategic able to move, interoperate and be managed among x86 systems, decisions, and avoid pitfalls of rampant virtualization. reduced instruction set computer (RISC)/Itanium systems and other systems in varying degrees (see Figure 1). Interoperability will be aided by the advances in standards such as the Distributed 2.0 Introduction: The Issue of Heterogeneity Management Task Force's (DMTF's) Open Virtualization Format In "Preparing for Heterogeneous Virtualization: The Third and Most (OVF) specification in which interoperability will be a stated goal. Challenging Phase," we state that heterogeneous virtualization will be The movement and management of VMs will also enable greater the third of three stages in virtualization that gradually solve problems flexibility in IT organization options in deciding where VMs should stemming from pervasive virtual machines across heterogeneous be hosted - internal IT, hosting and cloud services. We are platforms. Here's how we characterize these stages: not suggesting that Stage 3 will be completely practical and a priority of all organizations, but it sho... [download for more]
