VMForum in New York City

The VMForum in New York City today has been outstanding.  Presentations are standing room only, hands-on labs and vendor booth area have been packed all day. 

Michelle Bailey - IDC
Michelle Bailey from the IDC gave a good presentation on cloud computing and the direction of virtualization.   A few highlights from her presentation:

• We are moving from a product oriented environment to a services oriented environment.
• Virtualization is the killer app for the data center.

 Cloud 2.0 is about who. Virtualization is foundation for cloud computing.

• CC2CC - Customer Cloud to Customer Cloud
• Blended - Business Cloud to Customer Cloud
• Enterprise Cloud

By 2013 there will be 85 million servers and most will be running in a Virtual Machine (VM).  Customers using private clouds are running more efficient organizations than traditional environments.  Private cloud enviroments are able  to manage more servers per administrator compared to traditional IT infrastructures.  Private clouds are running 25% more efficient which is point where industry will move there to get this efficiency.

Cost is not the driving force of virtualization.  Its the agility, provisioning, flexibility, reduced down time, etc. that are key factors customers are leveraging with virtualization.

The cloud is also a great opportunity for organizations to reevaluate their operations and organization.

Conclusion
Talked to a lot of VMware customers that are moving to a virtualization first policy.   VMForum was a very well attended environment and has a lot of positive energy around it.  I'd recommend attending one of these events when they come to your city.