Is Uncle Sam Virtualizing? Here Are Some Answers
How are federal government IT managers viewing virtualization? To find out
Science Logic asked more than100 federal agency IT managers, systems administrators and network engineers at the
FOSE conference to spill the beans. ScienceLogic is an IT management solutions company which offers a product called the EM7 Meta-Appliance, a centralized data and reporting repository. XM Satellite Radio is one of their customers.
I recently talked with Dave Link, the company's CEO, about what they found. Dave is an affable gent who spoke to me from Interop in Vegas where his company has been tasked with doing the network management for the show itself. Not a bad gig to have, and Dave didn't seem too disappointed about the marketing value of that opportunity.
The survey addressed a number of issues including, but not limited to, IPv6 readiness; virtualization; ITIL/CMDB; "green IT"; and using Web 2.0. However, for some reason I found myself irresistably drawn to the topic of virtualization. Here the results were more in the way of confirmation rather than any blockbuster revelations.
Fewer than 15 percent of respondents actually have a solution installed (comparable of course to the numbers we hear for the commercial market); and 42 percent of agency IT shops plan to implement virtualization next year. Finally, the survey took a look at "green IT" as a separate and distinct phenomenon. The key takeways? It's important (75 percent), but low priority. And only 13 percent of those surveyed actually have any tools in place.
The full results of the survey are here. To see comparisons between the 2007 and 2008 results, look here.
Posted by Tom Valovic on 04/29/2008 at 12:49 PM