Is there ever an automatic savings?

One of the key messages most suppliers of any virtualization technology use is that the use of their product will automatically save the customer money. I have concerns that some of them are really over reaching to convince customers. Do you agree?

If I follow their line of thinking correctly, some of what they're saying certainly can be supported by cost of ownership or return on investment studies that have been published. Most of these marketing messages focus on saving staff time and thus saving money.

I believe that this is based upon North American and Western European focused studies that seem to suggest that hardware and software when combined usually make up under 25% of the costs in a 5 year cost analysis. Staff-related costs typically are between 50% and 70% of the total costs in those same studies.

Some of the folks focused on virtual processing technology (grid computing software, clustering software, workload management software, virtual machine software and operating system virtualization/partitioning software) also state the the customer will save money on both hardware and software.

In my short time in the industry, I've learned that no single technology automatically produces savings. Even the best of technology can be used in "sub-optimal" ways. Alright, stupid ways. When a technology is used improperly or is seen as a panacea that will solve all problems everywhere, there's often a cost.

The organizations that seem to get the most out of technology have developed an overall architecture that makes room for changes, future technology and the like. They've included thoughts about management and security in their plans. They adopt technology only when it can be made to fit in their architecture without causing disruption. If a suppliers offers a technology that seems to offer benefits when taken on its own but, will cause disruption when put into the organization's network, the organization says "no thanks" and continues based upon their plan.

Does your organization have a plan for the adoption of technology or do they have separate teams for infrastructure, network, database, application and virtualization technology?

Do you think that any technology really offers automatic savings?