Chris Wahl over at the WahlNetwork has just posted a great article on Virtualization Phase 2 – Adventures in VBCA (Virtualizing Business Critical Applications). It is an article that is definitely worthwhile reading. I think one thing that is interesting is how different regions of the world are at different stages within their virtualization journey. On the whole Australia and New Zealand and a few others have been in the Virtualization Phase 2 of VBCA for a couple of years already (I’ve been focused on it since 2007), but it’s still only just getting started. Now many other developed markets are starting to move on to virtualize the easier business critical applications, including Unix to VMware migrations. The opportunity for customers, partners and VMware is massive.

This phase of the virtualization journey requires some different disciplines and a different approach to standard virtulization of IT Production or Tier 2 / 3 workloads, which was primarily done for server consolidation and maximizing consolidation ratios (see my comment on Chris’s article). It’s not just about the infrastructure anymore, it’s all about the applications and how to maximize their SLA’s (availability, performance, quality of service) on the infrastructure. This next phase will drive further CAPEX and OPEX savings from the infrastructure, but also licensing efficiencies and architectural efficiencies for the applications, resulting in even more CAPEX and OPEX savings.

Some things to consider: The only reason your infrastructure exists is to run the applications. Your database is just an extension of your storage. Your SLA’s and quality of service must be guaranteed. Start getting prepared for this next massive wave of opportunity and the next generation software defined datacenter that it will run on.

—

This post first appeared on the Long White Virtual Clouds blog at longwhiteclouds.com, by Michael Webster +. Copyright © 2013 – IT Solutions 2000 Ltd and Michael Webster +. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission.