Gardner called virtualization the "highest-impact trend" for the information technology world through 2012. In this study, we will discuss various software virtualization approaches and their benefits. The impacts of virtualization to IT industry sectors are also identified. An IT service management standard, ITIL, has been used in guiding our analysis of virtualization technologies and in assessing the impact of virtualization to IT services. IT service management framework can also provide proper guidance and performance measures for the implementation of virtualization. The initial impact of virtualization will be the improvement of IT operations and the building of more dynamic IT infrastructures. However, the effect will trick down to end users with improved IT services. IT infrastructures and applications will then become a commodity. As for hardware and software companies, once benefits and cost saving of virtualization and cloud computing have been realized, their clients will have more resources to invest in new applications. These companies need to provide more flexible, scalable, and innovative IT applications and services to survive and succeed. (22 refs)
關聯:
Advances in Information Sciences and Service Sciences
