A virtual world of virtualness

I wrote this a while ago, but returning from Nice last week, it still strikes me as somewhat prescient - if I do say so myself.

Kirby's Sub-theorem #2 - Virtualization eventually surrounds and commoditizes every IT resource

Ultimately, IT infrastructure will be made up of groups of commoditized resources – processor power, network bandwidth, storage capacity, etc. – connected through ‘buffering zones’ which are at their core virtualizers.

These connecting layers between resource pools will also provide the control points for infrastructure management. These connecting layers will be a loosely coupled network of policy enforcement engines – both providing the decoupling (virtualization) of the resources and enabling management policies to be injected, enforced, and visualized.

As data moves between servers and storage, policies will control access and placement. As traffic is moved from applications to end-users, policies will control security, quality of service, and even provisioning of additional resources.

IT operations will be provided a single unified view of the infrastructure and policies, enabling near-instant IT response to changes in the business environment.


It will be interesting to see how the virtualizers are eventually virtualized.