Virtualization is the process of creating something that is virtual yet not real. The ‘something’ can be network resources, storage devices, or an operating system. According to Moore’s law, Virtualization should be made a mandate otherwise a lot of computing power goes to waste every year owing to reasons such as hardware being underutilized, data centers running out of space, energy costs, and system administration expenses shooting up.
Virtualization can be of the following types: Client Virtualization, Server Virtualization, and Storage Virtualization.
Client Virtualization consists of Application Packaging, Application Streaming, and Hardware Emulation. The whole thing works on the assumption that data centers have strict procedures regarding the type of software used in systems. Server Virtualization consists of OS containers, hardware emulation, and para-Virtualization, which is the center of all actions. However, the challenge here is that the approach taken for Virtualization should match customer requirements. More the number of servers and applications is the requirement of storage. Storage Virtualization consists of direct-attached storage, network-attached storage, and storage area network.
Virtualization Hype
Businesses have been hearing about several benefits that virtualization brings about. The benefits include reduced data center power, improved continuity and availability of services, better utilization of servers, and simpler installation procedures. Few other direct benefits derived from virtualization are as follows:
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- Offers a technology-driven environment
- Facilitates enhanced technical environment
- Accelerates business pace
- Creates an environment that calls for urgent changes
- Encourages the existing process to be revisited to identify the scope of improvement.
Importance of ITIL in a Virtual Environment
IT Service Management remains a critical component of the Virtualization environment. Almost all components and functions of ITIL and Service Management are impacted by the introduction of a virtual environment. ITIL holds tremendous significance in a virtual environment in the following ways.
In case a new technology holds poor process or lacks efficient governance, it will have little chance of improvement without having ITIL in the picture.
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- In case the bad process is automated, it will end up in failure.
- If ITIL is not on the scene, the service life cycle will also not be. Scope of innovation is most likely to be missed without a service life cycle. There are high chances of alignment opportunities also being missed out.
- It is common practice amongst organizations to claim that they are Virtualization ready. It almost means that they are ITIL ready.
Event Management Shows Road Signs to Virtualization
In a virtual environment, many services may not be linked to the specific required equipment. Therefore, it is crucial that control and monitoring of systems and equipment are facilitated. Event management plays a key role in the monitoring of events taking place within IT organizations. The key task of event management is to detect events and ensure that the processes and functionalities within the event make sense. Event management also determines the course of action to be undertaken to achieve the designated goals of the events.
Virtualization + ITIL = Success
A survey was conducted among 300 businesses to study the benefits of ITIL and Virtualization. Ovum, a leading market researcher and consultant, found the prolific benefits derived from the consolidation of Virtualization and ITIL implementation. Highly efficient IT organizations are those, as stated by Ovum, which can accommodate the changing demands in the market in a timely manner, with minimum disruptions in their daily operations. About 22% of the companies surveyed showed strong growth potential meeting the changing market expectations. These organizations have been found to be laying a lot of groundwork in the last few years by implementing ITIL and Virtualization technologies. The rest 78% of the organizations surveyed, need to develop both operations and infrastructure in order to match up with the ever-increasing market demands without disrupting their ongoing processes.
Server Virtualization – Impact on ITIL
Gartner states that server Virtualization is the main issue responsible for modifying operations and infrastructure. Server Virtualization also offers the natural path to evolve from internal IT toward cloud computing. Server Virtualization as a process allows IT to make scalable and elastic delivery of services at a high speed, drive economies of scale, etc. This makes an IT organization respond almost like an internal cloud computing provider paving the way for new business opportunities. The IT organization can slowly try its hands at being an external cloud computing provider. Once Virtualization is established within the IT firm successfully, the external and internal services can be compared as they would have gone through a whole lot of changes, culturally and politically. The change will make it easier to outsource services to external cloud computing providers.
The impact of server Virtualization on ITIL is significant. Although the impact is widely recognized, research and studies establishing the correlation are missing. The key functions of ITIL include:
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- Streamlining its processes
- Reduce incidents
- Implement standards for providing the best services
- Performing analysis, identifying resolutions
- Define services and specific targets
- Allocate costs and recover accurately
- Management IT processes and identify the scope of improvement
All the ITIL functionalities mentioned above are enhanced with the server Virtualization. The latter facilitates better utilization of already existing resources. Two or more virtual servers can be deployed on one physical server. With the number of physical servers being reduced, managing and deploying servers becomes simple. In the case of a new server, the provisioning time is reduced from days to hours.
Server Virtualization also aids ITIL in its disaster recovery initiatives. Faster recovery is facilitated with better availability of resources at a lesser cost. Although training and licensing costs are increased, costs of hosting, management, hardware, and energy are reduced significantly.
It is high time for organizations to start integrating ITIL and Virtualization and boost processes and operations. As we have seen integration of ITIL and Virtualization brings down costs and enhances service delivery. This enables organizations to offer better services at lesser costs and thereby become customer-centric organizations.
