The new technology buzzword may have graduated from being a mere marketing hype, but problems arising from mismanaged direction in virtualizing critical business IT components is getting more headaches than relieved sighs.
"Virtualization is the key to attaining lower budgets, reducing risks and improving consolidation," said Sal Fernando, chief architect, EMC South Asia. "But most companies are currently virtualizing in small disparate resource pools that are independently managed."
In a rush to virtualize resources to address the rapid growth of information, Fernando said companies are unnecessarily acquiring equipment and solutions that are managed separately, creating inefficiencies in the long run.
"We talk to them and tell them that they need to stop virtualizing using a siloed approach and advice them to opt for a virtualization solution that is integrated and is able to communicate with each other," added Ronnie Lazatino, country manager, EMC Philippines.
Current trends in virtualization dictates separate administration of Storage, Server and the LAN/SAN/WAN spaces, which could is prone to creating conflicts in management.
"But it's not a simple rip-and-replace solution," Fernando clarified. EMC's strategy, he said, includes a detailed forensics of the firm's current infrastructure in order to tailor-fit a virtualization solution specific to their needs. This is the reason, he added, why they "can't put a price on [their] offerings. Every firm's needs are unique."
Despite this renewed interest in virtualization complemented by the current financial crisis, Lazatino notes that uptake in the Philippines is still not catching up. "Most of the firms are still in the light virtualization phase," he explained, predicting that it would take at least five years before a fully-automated virtualized data center is realized.
In light of this, EMC is urging companies to consider virtualization, given that "information will continue to grow, crisis or not," Fernando said, adding that the journey to virtualization makes a strong business sense that needs to be capitalized up on by business executives.