Three of 2009's Top Trends: Virtualization, Ethernet and Cloud Computing

As we begin 2009, there has already been a tremendous amount of discussion on what technologies are poised for growth this year. The telecom and data center industries have quite a few areas that are expanding, especially with technologies that create more cost effective and efficient environments. There is a certain amount of consensus of what is going to impact the industry more in 2009 and beyond, than what was previously seen.

On the top of many lists are virtualization technologies. Virtualization technologies are going to be an important function of communications in 2009 and beyond. Gartner’s Technology predictions for 2009 place virtualization at the top of their list as the most important technology for 2009. What is most appealing is that virtualization is a good technology both because it saves money and it allows faster application time to market.

CGI Group, Inc., one of the largest independent information technology and business process services firms in the world, relies on virtualization solutions to better leverage its hardware and software investments, particularly given the global delivery ‘follow the sun’ model they operate under. The company also uses virtualization to host customer solutions. “We use virtualization to both maximize our financial leverage and provide flexibility in supporting customers, while containing cost,” explains Larry Honarvar, vice president of consulting services for CGI. It is important to note that CGI uses virtualization with cost-effective global bandwidth and networking solutions to optimize its connectivity. It does this in a centralized hosted environment within a colocation facility, where it can easily make on-site or remote adds, moves and changes to their underlying infrastructure.

Virtualization is also a key driver for the growth of carrier-class Ethernet solutions. Ethernet is an easy, plug-and-play network connection technology that grows as you grow and when deployed correctly it can be cost effective and efficient.

“It is vital that enterprises use or expand their use of carrier-class Ethernet across wide area networks in 2009,” states David Strauss, VP of marketing for Optimum Lightpath, a division of Cablevision Systems Corp. What Strauss and his associates at Optimum are seeing as a key driver that makes this technology so important is the growing popularity of bandwidth intensive applications such as CRM, ERP, business intelligence, video conferencing and VoIP applications, as well as the need for companies to achieve greater network security, speed and storage. According to Strauss, “high-speed, fiber-based networks with large amounts of bandwidth are ideal for powering technologies such as SaaS [Software as a Service], cloud computing and virtualization.” A variety of different types of companies already use Ethernet technology to make their communications more effective. These include data centers, government municipalities, universities, and hospitals.

Another trend that ranks high on Gartner’s technology predictions for 2009 also relies on networking and colocation/data center solutions: Cloud Computing. This is an interesting technology that serves not only as a platform for Software as a Service (SaaS), but for general computing and storage infrastructure solutions and information or business processes as well. Vineet Jain, CEO of Egnyte, a leading provider of on-demand, cloud-based file server solutions, targets small to medium size businesses that require Internet-based, remote file server solutions that provide flexible, expandable file management, collaboration, remote access, backup and large file sharing capabilities. One of its clients, Restoration SOS®, the world’s largest resource for fire and water damage restoration, implemented this solution in the latter part of 2008. The company went from having one computer with a shared folder to a full-fledged on-demand solution deployed across its entire global employee base. Using Cloud Computing, the company was able to consolidate all of their files into secure folders, set the right access controls on data, and back-up employee computers using a single solution.

The experts clearly agree that the trend in 2009 will be technologies that improve IT cost and efficiency. Virtualization, Ethernet and cloud computing technologies all do that. A growing number of companies are already benefiting from these technologies. And many more will benefit in the months and years ahead. IP

Rose Klimovich is vice president, product development and product management at Telx. She can be reached at rklimovich@telx.com.