It’s “Virtual Reality” Time in the Data Center

This is my Editor's Letter for the next issue of ISUG Technical Journal

Now that we’re past President Obama’s inauguration and well into the global economic slowdown we can, I hope, start to concentrate on a few home truths and hard facts as we look at the daily realities faced in the IT industry. Economists argue that recessions are in fact a healthy part of economic cycles that always rise and fall to flush out the ‘dead wood’ and unproductive units within any type of business. If that theory is true, then perhaps now we can look around us and start the road to recovery. So what role will the data center play in this process?

In the midst of this doom and gloom, Sybase has just recorded the most successful period in its corporate history with better than ever financial results and you can read more about this in the news pages of this issue. While Sybase IQ and Sybase 365 have been key to the company’s recent successes, there are other means by which organizations are rationalising their data stacks to be more profitable.

Virtualization has spent the last couple of years getting a huge amount of press coverage despite it remaining still nascent with limited adoption in many environments. Now, in 2009, the situation is changing and virtual realities are being brought to bear with an increasing amount of server consolidation being seen. Additional layers are now being considered such as virtual delivery of desktop applications and there are further implications (such as billing and management) this throws up for the hosted service providers that supply these services.

What this means to you as a DBA, developer, or software engineer of any description is that we find ourselves faced by somewhat of a new playing field upon which to operate. The phrase Return on Investment may no longer be confined to the corporate boardroom and you are just as likely to hear your project manager start using it now. Efficiency, productivity and profitability may be words that you have to form a new or at least a closer acquaintance with. I hope the pages inside this months ISUG Technical Journal serve to arm you with food for thought and valuable technical advice in this new more challenging technology landscape.