Keep on virtualising. Next step: the database

If we think of where virtualisation started from in the 1960s, pioneered by IBM and then accelerated by VMware, the development over the past 50 years has been of great magnitude. As a technique and an industry, virtualisation is now embedded into UK IT. It’s no longer a buzzword and nearly every organisation has had some experience virtualising its IT environment, but 50 years on, we’re not quite done.

A wide adoption of three key principles is enabling a new wave of virtualisation, one that goes deeper and beyond hardware.

First, resistance has given way to acceptance. Virtualisation is a standard approach in IT and many organisations implement virtual systems by default. ‘Virtual first’ is no longer a cutting edge rallying cry. Second, cost has given way to flexibility. That is, virtualisation is often seen as an enabler of agility and flexibility, rather than just a hardware cost saver. While savings are certainly present, agility can often trump capital expenditure for virtual projects. Third, the tactical has given way to the strategic for virtualisation strategy. Many firms look at ways to transform their enterprise architecture using virtualisation techniques, whether as an enabler of the cloud or simply as the next generation of architecture design.

Whereas previous waves of virtualisation focused on desktops and servers, the current wave of vendors are virtualising the next layers down in the architecture, building on enterprises’ acceptance of the virtual over the physical, the need for greater flexibility in IT design, and the desire to use new solutions to deploy new business strategies.

Cisco, for example, is leading the way in network virtualisation by consolidating multiple physical networks into one virtual network. Benefits include disaster recovery, efficiency, and long-term cost-savings for both hardware and energy.

The latest technique however, goes deeper, helping large IT departments to be agile, move faster and manage multiple projects concurrently. Enter database virtualisation, a technology pioneered by Delphix. Database virtualisation doesn’t just run a database in a virtual environment, but virtualises the data files within the database itself. Benefits are profound.

In the past, it would take days for developers, data analysts, business analysts and QA engineers to get fresh data, but with database virtualisation this takes hours, or even minutes. The limitations to how frequently a database can be refreshed or how many projects can run simultaneously are gone. There are no longer resources managing multiple copies of a database, but instead can support new requests from developers, analysts and other departments.

Customers are seeing payback in tens of millions of pounds each, with many times that value in agility and flexibility. Informatica, for example, can now complete projects in half the time, and Facebook has driven down its monthly financial close from 21 to two days.

In the coming years, there will be an even bigger emphasis on gaining greater flexibility and efficiency and with that will come new virtualisation techniques.

Earlier waves of virtualisation totally transformed the desktop and server markets, and this wave will be no different as customers look to virtualise new segments of the enterprise stack.

Keep on virtualising.