Is VMware doing more than Virtualisation ?

Lets talk about what the introduction of a player like VMWare has done to the software market and IT industry. What effects has the influence of VMWare had on todays IT industry and the people like you and I who work in it.

Virtualisation technology is changing the way we see hardware, some liken it to the old mainframe days. A number of people think that we have come full circle with a pool of dedicated hardware and no reliance on a single piece. Those people would be right! But how has this influenced IT departments, organisations and the industry in general ?

Shared storage is a big topic of discussion, and it has been popular for a number of years. Though hardware vendors will tell you that the shared storage arena has exploded since the introduction of lower cost alternatives and the use of the technology for virtualisation. Hardware design for servers has also changed and continues to change as people adopt virtualisation. The design centers around leveraging the hardware to it's peak utilisation.

Look at the multiple cores and the amount of memory that you can put in a low end server now. It is all about maximum utilisation, not overkill for a single server running on a single piece of hardware. Server consolidation is the buzzword around business at the moment, hardware companies are selling new hardware for virtualisation so companies can remove hundreds of physical servers.

The demystification of unix for windows administrators is another big plus that has come about because of the ESX server product. A business normally gets into virualisation by putting some windows servers on an ESX host. Or by trialling the free server product that just sits on top of windows. This leads to the windows administrator managing the ESX farm. Windows administrators all around the world are learning linux commands and understanding the benefits that the operating system can provide because they need to. If they do not learn they are limiting the benefit of the investment their business has made.

What about the community ? The community that surrounds the VMware product line is nothing short of extraordinary. The sense of fellowship and the sheer volume of people willing to help total strangers is huge. People all over the world are integrating and sharing experiences online and in person at user groups. This probably stems from the *nix heritage in the product line, but the community is different than the open source community. The community is more involved and there is a drive to help others.

Keeping them honest. That is the catchphrase that I like to use when talking about VMware's influence over competitors. They appear to welcome the competition yet push hard to keep them honest. My previous article on the MS and XenSource deal explains this well.

Innovation is what the software industry has become about. So many players are leveraging things like the VMware SDK and innovating. Creating products that leverage virtualisation technology and enabling business to do things quickly and easily. Things that 5 years ago we never thought would have been possible. What a ride it has been so far, and it does not look like it will slow down in a hurry. Companies who have partnered with VMware and companies who have become VAC's are reporting growth and turnover unseen since Y2K.

It is my belief that VMware has had more influence over the IT industry than we give them credit for. Things are changing, people are adopting new mindsets and even Gartner is keeping a close eye on the virtualisation arena. Well done!

Virtualisation is my passion.