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VMworld 2010: Taking Virtual Roads To The Cloud: Page 4 of 4

If embarking on a journey almost certainly leads to other, often unforeseen challenges, why would IT organizations want to go through the three stages of IT virtualization? Why not stop after the first stage? Well, whacking the first-stage mole derived cost savings, but another mole popped up creating issues, such as manageability and the need for new key functionality. And after that mole is whacked, another one appears, and IT must deal with the consequences. Does it every stop? Probably not, but achieving the final goal of IT as a service hopefully results in less complex, more productive IT environments and user experiences.

As presented at VMworld 2010, VMware's vision seems very appealing, but there are a number of behavioral issues, as well as complexity issues that have to be addressed to successfully take the Virtual Roads to the Actual Clouds. That may seem daunting, but VMware and its clients have a lot of help from its friends. The Solutions Exchange (a.k.a. the trade show portion of the event) contained a large number of vendor solutions, but the mass of attendees crowding the aisles attests to the level of interest. VMware stated that for each dollar of license revenues it receives, company partners in the ecosystem get $15. The virtualization gold rush is on!

That means that VMware doesn't have to have the revenues of some of the largest IT vendors (although it has and likely will continue to do very well) to have a major impact on the IT industry over the next decade. The threats and opportunities that the company poses to other vendors is a subject for another day.

The bottom line is that the journey of the three phases of virtualization leading to IT as a service instantiated in a cloud will not be either short or easy. But if VMware's Maritz is correct in thinking that we are on the cusp of a new IT era, organizations that have started the journey to the cloud cannot retreat nor stay the same.

Disclaimer: At the date of posting, VMware is not a client of the Mesabi Group or David Hill