Tarry Singh Sounds Off on Virtualization

We were able to catch up with Tarry Singh of Virtualization for Everyone and get his thoughts on enterprise IT today and where virtualization fits in. Tarry is a Dutch citizen and virtualization enthusiast who frequently shares his insights on emerging trends that will affect the business community and global economy as a whole. At VMWorld 2008, he spoke with executives from Citrix and Microsoft.

StackSafe: What do you see as the biggest trend for enterprise IT today?

Tarry Singh: Trends in data centers, virtualization cloud computing will be big by 2011. With cloud computing we will see data centers that will run like big yet efficient power plants. There will be several technologies, including Virtualization, that may be deployed in those data centers. With most of the applications get web enabled and bandwidths increasing, application delivery and software delivery will not only be efficient but also globally deliverable. That way we will truly achieve a 24×7x7 availability

StackSafe: Tell me about the mission and goals of your blog?

Tarry Singh: Started with VMWare in 2000, virtualization became very hot after desktop virtualization. 90% of blog on emerging datacenters. Focuses on trends like virtualization, business strategies and offering advice to companies on these somewhat disruptive technologies. The purpose of my blog is also to evangelize new and emerging trends in technologies, I write articles that offer unique insights to solving business problems and have helped several start-ups reshape their strategies to really go to the customers directly.

StackSafe: How did you get into virtualization, what made you become passionate about the topic?

Tarry Singh: Virtualization is amazing. It has been neglected in the past few years, but is really coming into its own. It helps people become more effective and productive, the advantages are wonderful. The main advantage of virtualization is not just consolidation but also the enhanced productivity that businesses can achieve from their staff. Although it is a relatively known technology and has been used by IBM for over 40 years, it is getting a lot of attention as x86 servers are getting virtualized and has become the talk of the town.

My passion comes from several factors, when I left my previous profession, in the maritime, and got to directly working with IT, I saw a huge void between IT domains and the business domains. I have since shifted from being a business executive to an IT executive to IT consultant and now again making my move back to business. Only this time I am fully equipped with IT knowledge and virtualization is a great technology to have in your arsenal.

StackSafe: How can companies benefit from implementing virtualization strategies? What is the ROI? (Financial savings? Freeing up resources? Technological advantages?)

Tarry Singh: The biggest ROI for companies is financial in that they can save money by using virtualization. It also helps them to bring their applications to the next level and engage in high performance computing. Virtualization provides indications of problems and finds ways to fix them. It also provides data-application efficiency and a boost in overall total cost of ownership. It is not only the ROI but the TCA which is considerably contained, usually firms end up spending a lot in new technologies and lose their competitive edge. Also many executives have and are coming to realize that with virtualization they are also freeing up their human resources from mundane tasks and can engage them in being actively involved in their corporate strategy and business goals.

StackSafe: What kind of companies should use virtualization? (Size, type, etc.)

Tarry Singh: Anyone from Fortune 100 companies to those with 1,500-2,000 employees. Small to medium sized companies are best, they are usually running anywhere from 20-50 different servers. The most important thing for companies to realize is that virtualization should become a common standard and practice, not just a trend. Any company that is looking to become more efficient and save money will benefit from virtualization.

StackSafe: Virtualization is not new, but is experiencing a boost in interest. What do you think is causing the excitement?

Tarry Singh:

• Outsourcing
  • With an optimal and scalable virtual infrastructure, firms can finally start taking steps towards making not only smart but ethical decisions when it comes to out- and in-sourcing. With a reasonably visualized model, firms can today make smart decisions and effectively manage and make use of an adaptive sourcing model.
• Intellectual property
  • Firms must make sure that a lot changes when virtualization is adopted in the enterprise, a lot of moving targets need to be identified and firms that indulge in outsourcing model. Financial constraints have forced several pre-virtualization era firms to even outsource their core business, fortunately with virtualization today, the core business can thrive within the protected walls of the firms and they can nurture their IP while running at lower costs.
• High performance working
  • Many organizations are adopting models and as we speak there are new roles emerging such as “IT entrepreneur” , this is the age of the new professionals which we will see as the “versatilists”, such individuals will have skills that will span across several domains. Such high performance workers will we very beneficial for several firms.
• Investment in technology
  • Virtualization is suddenly spurring a lot of innovation, this is generating a lot of interest wthin the investors, start-ups and entrepreneurs. Even regular IT departments are digging in their pockets and willing to invest in this technology.

StackSafe: What is the best product out there for virtualization?

Tarry Singh: There are so many out there, it depends on what kind of need you have. Personally I think products like Oracle VM, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix will have a significant impact as they ar tightly integrated within their applications, product like Citrix XenServer and Xenapp are coming from a vendor that has a long history in application delivery. Firms like VMware, Virtual Iron, Parallels are constantly evolving and are aggressively going for this new market.

So the best product in virtualization is the one that answers your needs adequately. It could be VMware, it could be Oracle VM, it could be Citrix XenServer, it could be Parallels or Virtual Iron.

StackSafe: Can you describe the differences in virtualization’s adoption and/or interest between North America and EMEA?

Tarry Singh: There are many challenges and differences to take into account when discussing adoption between countries. Some are able to adopt faster which help companies move ahead faster and achieve economic growth. The need to be more effective is often a driver for adoption, as well as wanting to get into breakthrough technologies. China is usually ahead of the game in advanced technology. Sometimes a recession can affect adoption….. overall adoption could occur faster and have better numbers, but I’m seeing it happen a lot later in other countries than in the United States. We will see a continued growth from countries such as China and India. The fact that today 4 out of 10 top richest men are Indians say enough.

Europe generally tends to follow US gradually, it has partly to do with the culture and the slow rate of adoption.

StackSafe: How do you define “Virtualization 3.0″?

Tarry Singh: Virtualization 3.0 is two parts, application virtualization and monitoring. I recently wrote about the Tipping Point of Virtualization 3.0.

Virtualization 3.0 is near real-time infrastructure where the convergence of the IT and business domains finally begins. Please also take a look my keynote which I did at virtualization event in Belgium and will be talking about it at several international conferences including Citrix summit in August 2008 and VMworld Vegas 2008 as well.

Virtualization 3.0 will focus on applications and I/O issues. It will focus strongly on BLM (Business Life Cycle Management), adaptive sourcing models and we will see a converging business bulk as we move towards virtualization 3.0.

For more on Tarry’s answer to the definition of Virtualization 3.0, take a listen below or download this sound byte:

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Interviews, Interviews-Analysts, Interviews-Bloggers