Beyond server consolidation

Abstract

Virtualization's main application in the enterprise is still server consolidation. As effective as that is, we are likely to see a very different picture a number of years from now, where virtualization will be the key enabling technology for a series of strategic changes in IT. Adaptive resource management using utility computing will be essential to success in an economy with increasing uncertainty. Adapting quickly to new customer demands, new business relationships, and cancelled contracts will be a key business enabler in the modern enterprise, regardless of whether the enterprise executes a software-as-a-service strategy or uses the resource in a more traditional manner. Virtualization will change the way we do testing, with QA departments getting access to a greater variety of resources than they ever had before - at a much lower cost to the business. Similarly, companies that were not proficient in handling reliability, fault tolerance, and business continuity will find in virtualization a new tool that will allow them to make significant progress toward these goals without rewriting all of their software. © 2008 ACM.