Good bye 2008

It's been a very busy year in the world of virtualization technology. The technical envelope has been pushed in all of the areas in the Kusnetzky Group Model of virtualization technology (see Sorting out the different layers of virtualization for more information about the model). We've also seen important acquisitions that have strengthened the product and technology portfolios of companies such as Citrix, IBM, and VMware.

As organizations get their collective arms around this technology, we can expect to see a major shift in the IT infrastructure that they are deploying towards one that will make it possible for staff members to access applications and data from wherever they are, using whatever device is best suited to the task at hand. Applications are going to become far more agile through the use of either application virtualization or processing virtualization technology. Server and client systems are likely to also become more agile and reliable through the use of this technology. It's my view that one of the most important benefits will be the creation of a more highly manageable, reliable and secure environment.

This is likely to mean that organizations test out the concept of an "in house cloud" and as it proves useful, deploy some applications using some cloud computing supplier.

What do you think 2009 will bring?