SearchSystemsChannel.com: How has the adoption of server virtualization technologies impacted the channel?
Barb Goldworm: Server virtualization is changing the business model for hardware vendors. It's changed some of the compensation strategies of what they are doing through the channel. If you are selling server reseller, and the user is now looking at virtual servers, suddenly they can run 10 virtual servers on one physical server and you are no longer selling 10 servers. As a virtual server reseller the revenue model is based on selling software versus hardware.
The licensing aspects reqired for becoming virtual server vendor. Server virtualization also makes it interesting. Now software might be licensed for virtual environments as individual instances, by CPU or by core. Staying current on all of this information and understanding the implications within the channel can be challenging.
My sense is that over the next two years, server virtualization is going to become almost ubiquitous, certainly in the enterprise and to some extent moving down to the SMB space. Hypervisors (the underlying piece of server virtualization software) will be everywhere. It's very important for the channel to understand what that will do to the industry. Some hardware platforms are now coming with hypervisors directly on them (i.e. bootable from the firmware). From a channel perspective, in order to survive the business and move into the next decade of technology implementation, it is imperative to understand server virtualization technology and the impact it will have on the industry as a whole.
10 tips in 10 minutes from Barb Goldworm
Home: Introduction
1: Blade server and virtualization benefits
2: Ideal blade server candidates
3: How to sell blade servers
4: Blade server and virtualization misconceptions
5: Preparing to deploy blade servers and virtualization
6: Server virtualization channel impact
7: Future of blade servers and virtualization
8: Blade server and virtualization consulting
9: Server Blade Summit must-attend sessions
10: Blade server and virtualization resources
About Barb Goldworm: Barb Goldworm is founder, president and chief analyst of Focus Consulting and author of the book Blade Servers and Virtualization. She has spent over 30 years in systems and storage in various senior management, marketing, sales, technical and industry analyst positions with IBM, StorageTek, Novell, Enterprise Management Associates and several successful startup ventures. A frequent speaker at industry events, she also created and chaired Interop's Networked Storage Track. More recently, she was one of the top three ranked analyst/knowledge expert speakers at SNW and has been a regular expert speaker for TechTarget and Ziff-Davis E-seminars. She also chairs the Server Blade Summit on Blades and Virtualization.
