After attending a launch event yesterday in Dublin – it struck me how much harder it is these days to get the information that you want in the hands of the people you want to deliver it to. The launch covered Vista, 2008 server and SBS 2008 (plus licensing, Office Communication server and the Live range of services that MS are bringing to market).
Information overload is a serious matter when the people that you need to help spread the news about new products are affected. It happens mainly through changes in direction and strategy that cause products (and versions) to change with eye watering regularity.
This pressure to keep up with the latest versions and the cornucopia of variations causes companies to wonder when will things ever stabilise or normalise. Well the answer is maybe never or more probably it will stabilise as much as its going to when virtualisation of the IT hardware, software and services reaches maturity and allows the centralised management that is sorely lacking in many companies.
The security, reliability and controllability (is that real word?) that virtualisation can bring to even small organisations is potentially the greatest seachange I’ve seen in the industry in the last 20 years. Perhaps thats why Microsoft are building the technology into their flagship new server O/S and even rising to the challenge of interoperability with other providers virtual machine/application solutions by supporting other offerings than their own at the hypervisor level ?
I guess that it may well be the case that whomever manages this virtual world to come – will also control much of the real IT estate – “The Rise Of The VIRTUAL Machines” if you like …
With so much “smoke and mirrors” in the current virtual offerings and the promise of so much “freedom” it reminds me of the sentiment from a Horslips song which tells a story of a primitive race who legend says lived in Ireland many years ago and were visited by a race whose powers seemed supernatural to them – offering help and their magic in return for peaceful co-existence …
High on a mountain stands a boat
But are they Gods or real folks
Can’t see the fire but we smell the smoke
Who’ll take the plough ?
Who’ll be the yoke ?
Words from Trouble with a capital “T” by Horslips – http://www.horslips.ie/ from the album
“The Book of Invasions” available here The Stonehouse