Putting The Brakes on Virtualization

In order to achieve greater business objectives through virtualization, it’s time to put the brakes on, suggests Trend Micro’s Thomas Miller.

February 2010 will likely be remembered most for ‘Snowmageddon’ crippling Washington, DC. Toyota was also plagued with class-action lawsuits and admitted to recalling 8.1 million vehicles over gas pedal-related issues, followed immediately by news of problems with the anti-lock braking systems of its 2010 Prius. Hearing snowstorm and anti-lock brakes in the same newscast got me thinking about the invention of the brake. We all know that brakes are designed to stop cars; that’s what they do. But really, that is not why they were invented. Brakes were invented to allow cars to go faster. In fact, the faster the car the more comprehensive the braking system.
Let’s translate this into the original topic at hand: virtualization, which is already being adopted at breakneck speeds. How can putting the brakes on virtualization make your organization move faster? And what are brakes for virtual environments?

CIOs around the globe are turning to virtualization to achieve a number of business objectives. First and foremost, to achieve more computing capacity at less operating expense and capital costs. Second is to increase the speed at which IT is able to offer new and more competitive services.

Are there hazards on the road to virtualization that will limit deployments and hinder our business objectives? Yes, as with any major business undertaking there are always challenges. In fact, recent polls of IT executives by both research firms and services vendors alike suggest that we may likely be our own worst enemies. According to Nemertes Research, 93 percent of organizations ranging from SMBs to large enterprise have virtualized servers to support IT business objectives. A similar survey run by CDW found this number to be 90 percent. The unfortunate finding by both groups was that these deployments seem to tap out with only 34-42 percent of the IT infrastructure virtualized. In fact, the CDW research found that more than 50 percent of these organizations considered themselves 'fully deployed' with an average of 37 percent of their IT infrastructure virtualized.

This means we are experiencing initial challenges and not fully meeting our business objectives. Based on many customer conversations I have had I believe the challenges might be fall into three categories. The first two challenges are natural occurrences with relatively new technology as it enters the mainstream. As we continue to take advantage of the virtualization opportunity, there will be a shortage of skilled personnel available to accelerate deployments. Luckily, knowledge is available to the masses and the market will overcorrect quickly with a deluge of virtualization experts in 2010. Likewise, a corresponding proliferation of ISVs supporting virtualization will quickly smooth out the second roadblock as existing tools are integrated and new tools are developed to support virtualized environments.

The last challenge being encountered on the road to virtualization is protecting our newly virtualized environments that should cause you to put on the brakes in virtualization. I don't say this to make you fearful. Remember the purpose of brakes on the car, they allow us to go faster. And going faster in virtualization means we consolidate more and achieve greater business objectives.

Brakes for virtualized environments are the security and compliance solutions, purpose-built to work with virtualization that will enable you to consolidate more. These are the solutions that make it possible to virtualize more servers, giving us the confidence to mix previously disparate servers and applications with completely different security thresholds, together on the same physical server. They provide the visibility to see and prevent malicious or accidental traffic moving between virtual machines on the same physical server. They monitor the integrity of these systems to detect suspicious activity. And they work with the complexity of virtualization platforms to enable you to optimize your computing power using live migration, without losing the context of security as virtual machines move.

Brakes in virtualized environments provide the confidence that we need to virtualize more and achieve greater velocities. All we need to do then is fasten our seatbelts.

For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com/thinkagain.

As Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Thomas Miller is responsible for driving product marketing strategy for Trend Micro products on a global basis. Miller also heads all sales activity for our US business unit including consumer, retail, online, channel, SMB and enterprise strategies.