Thoughts on “Virtualization 2.0″
May 29th, 2008 by Pete Manca
Dan Kusnetzky asks an interesting question on his blog, “What is virtualization 2.0?”
Is it a catchphrase? Is it a new term that analysts can cling to? Is it a re-hash of technology from 20 years ago? Is it new?
I think the answer to all of these questions is yes!
Yes, it’s a new category that analysts (most notably IDC) have been pushing and yes, like all virtualization technologies, it’s an extension of what was delivered on the mainframe many years ago, just on commodity processors.
The interesting question, to me anyways, is “is it new?” Taken literally, even that is not that interesting. I think what Dan is asking is – is this really new technology that will have a material impact on how data centers are managed? If not, then it’s just another marketing term that will fall by the wayside in due time.
I think it is “new.” It’s really an evolutionary step in the virtualization of the data center. And yes, the technology will sound familiar to the mainframe crowd, but the data center is so much more than mainframes today. Virtualizing the data center means virtualizing servers and infrastructure across the data center, including commodity servers.
If Virtualization 1.0 is defined as virtualizing the server – think hypervisors like VMware and Xen, then Virtualization 2.0 is the natural extension to the infrastructure surrounding the server. Why does this matter?
It matters because the entire story can’t be told until all the components in the path of – pick your favorite name; utility computing, ubiquitous computing, agile IT, etc. – must be virtualized. This is critical. In order to create a truly dynamic data center, applications must be able to run on any server, at any time, with guaranteed service levels. To do this, the infrastructure must be as flexible as the servers. This is Virtualization 2.0. Creating a flexible, dynamic, fluid infrastructure to match the servers ability for the same.
Again, this is evolutionary, and it doesn’t stop at 2.0. Once the infrastructure is virtualized, we need to deal with other parts of the stack that that are inflexible. Dan writes a follow up blog examining the barriers to V2.0. He’s spot on, though I see these as Virtualization 2.0+ and the next step in the natural evolution to make the data center more dynamic.