‘From server farms, virtualisation will move to consumers’

If on the front end Google and Apple are redefining technology, on the back end VMware Inc is doing the same. Its tools are not search engines or flashy gadgets, but good ol’ servers, which it is now reinventing through initiatives such as virtualisation and cloud computing. From making the servers work at night to moving data across continents, VMware has turned servers virtual and software defined. Sumit Moitra caught up with VMware’s general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan, Andrew Dutton, on the sidelines of VM World 2012 recently in San Francisco. Excerpts from the interview:

How is virtualisation redefining businesses and the way we work?
Let’s say a storm is developing inside an organisation as we have got a whole lot of end-user devices now being attached to what was a relatively secured data flow. You need to secure the devices as most of the executives gave themselves iPads as they looked cool. So now it’s a big issue how you manage bring-your-own-devices and devices given out by the company and then secure the data. That’s on one side. Data centre, and, in fact, internal costs in just about every business are growing. So something has to change there. On the other side, there are customers and supply lines which are demanding different kinds of relations, which is very IT-based. If it’s a consumer sector, the relation could be a social network type of arrangement, or a web-based advertising type of arrangement or even tweet-based like tweet-me-if-there’s-something-wrong-with-your-phone. In the supply chain, people are increasingly communicating with several non-Windows-based devices. So the challenge is how do you manage this perfect storm.

From servers to personal devices, is virtualisation moving from enterprises to consumers?
The big cost structures are sitting on data centres, so that’s where the software-defined data centres allow businesses to create opportunities to satisfy consumers. To understand this, let’s find out the answer to the question: Why my IT experience at home is much better than what it is at my office? At home, I can do web browsing on my TV, which is connected to the internet; I can also pick up my iPhone or my iPad and do a whole lot of personal stuff. The answer is we haven’t yet done for our employees what we require to do by creating virtualisation and building applications that are appropriate in an enterprise. So the consumers will drive virtualisation without any doubt. What we are seeing is the first phase, the virtualisation of the server farms. Then you spread out and secure the end points, so you allow your employees and consumers and also suppliers to develop thin clients.

From virtual servers to virtual networks, is this the end of hardware?
The hardware will be around, but what we have done is make the hardware do its job. If you look at the old way of running an IT system, someone would come to you and say, I have got a new HR application, and I need servers. So, you go out and buy a server. You also buy enough storage for the application, enough for the user, and enough to satisfy the peak they are going to reach when the HR guys run the payroll check before the payday. If you buy a server, you always buy 50% more capacity as you don’t want the HR application to crash. It has been seen that just about 7% of the server capacities are actually used in private sector and just 5% in the government. So what we are doing is making equipment work effectively. So we virtualised the server by allowing applications access the full capacity under the control of VMware’s vSphere, the virtualisation layer.

You have development centres in India. How do they fit into your global scheme?
We will continue to add development skills in Asia Pacific, particularly in India. And it’s not because it’s cost effective, but because of availability of great skill. When we say we are going for software-defined data centres, it’s an extremely bold statement. But we can do it. But we can’t achieve that vision without the talent from India. Our India lab is four times the size of our facility in Beijing. Even then we will see more investments in India. We started in 2005 and have about 1,500 employees across eight offices, including two R&D centres. The uptake of virtualisation is very high. My guess is we will at least double the customer facing staff in the next year because of the demand we are witnessing here.