Foreword

Dear Architect,

Welcome to issue 24 of The Architecture Journal, themed on virtualization strategies. This topic has been growing in importance, as its initial success in the operating-system field—with the advent of new companies such as VMWare that were born around the concept—encouraged further exploration into several other contexts such as desktop, application, platform, hardware, and even data, just to mention a few.

The initial benefit of reusing an existing solution by simulating its original environment is too little compared with the myriad benefits that are aggregated, as long as virtualization was spread to different contexts. We might find these benefits from hardware consolidation (to reduce energy consumption and, therefore, the carbon footprint) to desktop-application coexistence with a straightforward, never-before-seen rollout process.

As typically occurs, however, benefits never come without expense, as new implementation challenges emerge. Here, again, is where architects come into play—to ensure that technology does not become an end unto itself, but a business-flow enabler.

For this issue, we counted on Richard Carpenter as guest editor-in-chief. Without his help, we could not have delivered these articles to you today:

• Nishant Thorat writes on how virtualization is already having an impact on IT architecture and its current trends.
• Phil Riccio explains factors, such as risks and mitigations, that one should consider in a virtualization plan.
• Alan Madisson covers the operational challenges of virtualization and how the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) overcomes these challenges.
• Clemens Reijnen takes us a bit away from the theme of this issue, as he explains what architects can expect from Visual Studio 2010 for application life-cycle management (ALM).
• Greg Hutch shares lessons that he learned from his experiences in virtualization projects.
• David Ziembicki invites us to look at virtualization from the strategic perspective of dynamic IT—an advanced state of IT maturity that has a high degree of automation, integrated-service management, and efficient use of resources.

That is all for this issue of the Journal, dear reader. We hope that you enjoy these articles and, as usual, send us your comments to archjrnl@microsoft.com.

Diego Dagum
Editor-in-Chief

Contents

• The Impact of Virtualization on Software Architecture, by Nishant Thorat and Arvind Raghavendran.
  An examination of how virtualization is already having an impact on IT architecture and its current trends.
• How Virtualized Corporate Networks Raise the Premium on System Reliability, by Phil Riccio.
  An explanation of factors, such as risks and mitigations, that one should consider in a virtualization plan.
• Virtualization: Without Control, Power Is Nothing, by Alan Maddison.
  A look at the operational challenges of virtualization and how the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) overcomes these challenges.
• Models and Application Life-Cycle Management, by Clemens Reijnen and Ir. Robert Deckers.
  A discussion of what architects can expect from Visual Studio 2010 for application life-cycle management (ALM).
• Getting the Most Out of Virtualization, by Greg Hutch.
  Lessons learned and conclusions gleaned from experiences in organizational virtualization projects.
• From Virtualization to Dynamic IT, by David Ziembicki.
  An invitation to look at virtualization from the strategic perspective of dynamic IT—an advanced state of IT maturity.

This issue is also available as a PDF. Download it here.