Virtualization trends

demand new job skills

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

Contents
Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

You've helped usher in the age of server

virtualization, but it's no time to rest on your laurels.
New trends, including hyper-convergence, softwaredefined networking, identity management, cloud
storage and more, are significantly impacting the
tasks and responsibilities of todays virtualization
admins.
For this reason, the SearchServerVirtualization.com
editorial team compiled this essential guide to help
you stay on top of industry trends and hone your
skills for the next generation of virtualization jobs.
Skills for the next generation of virtualization jobs
By: Brien Posey
According to many estimates, most organizations have virtualized over half
of their production workloads. Server virtualization has clearly become a
mainstream technology, and there is no shortage of organizations looking to
the future with plans to adopt next-generation virtualization technologies. Of
course, this raises the question of which skills IT professionals should be
focusing on today in order to better prepare themselves for the server
virtualization jobs and technologies of the future.
The first skill that I recommend focusing on to prepare for the next generation
of virtualization jobs might seem a little bit odd, but please hear me out. My
recommendation is to focus on learning (or more likely, relearning) basic
networking. The reason I make this recommendation is that Microsoft and
VMware are both placing a great deal of emphasis on software-defined
networking. SDN allows administrators to gain an unprecedented level of
flexibility over the virtual network architecture. Microsoft's approach, for

Page 1 of 7

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

example, allows for the creation of logical networks and VM networks that
overlay the physical network topology. These VM networks can be used to
enable multi-tenancy (among many other things).

Contents
Defining logical networks and VM networks on top of the existing physical

Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

network greatly increases the overall network complexity. The level of

complexity is further increased when multi-tenancy (or parallel VM networks)
are brought into the picture. Successfully building and maintaining these
types of networks requires administrators to have a solid understanding of
the way that IP networks work. This includes everything from managing
DHCP scopes to subnetting and packet routing. Taking the time to study up
on IP networking today will likely pay dividends for virtualization admins down
the road.
Another area in which IT professionals must focus their attention in
preparation for next-generation server virtualization is with regard to identity
management. To see why this is the case, consider the idea that many
organizations started out using physical servers and gradually transitioned
some of their workloads into the virtual world. By doing so, the organization
likely created an environment in which it has both physical and virtual servers
that belong to a common Active Directory forest. This approach to server
virtualization is relatively seamless because a user's identity is managed at
the forest level. Hence, the authentication process works in an identical
manner for both physical and virtual machines.
As time goes on, however, resources are likely to become much more widely
scattered than they are today. Organizations may, for example, run some
workloads on local hypervisors, while other workloads run on public clouds.
Even if an organization chooses to keep all production workloads running onpremises, the organization might choose to configure its virtualization
infrastructure as a private cloud.
The point is that it will eventually become the norm for virtual networks to
extend beyond physical network boundaries. Similarly, it will become much
more common for users to connect to resources that exist in external Active

Page 2 of 7

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

Directory forests. As such, IT pros may benefit from studying such concepts
as identity management, Active Directory federation and single sign-on.

Contents

Although I believe that networking and identity management will probably be

two of the most important areas of focus going forward, there are plenty of

Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

other technologies worth studying. One such technology is storage.

Anyone who is currently administering a virtual server deployment at an
enterprise scale is no doubt familiar with the various types of storage, as well
as related topics, such as storage connectivity and bandwidth optimization.
While there is no denying the importance of having a solid working
knowledge of enterprise storage, it will conceivably be just as important to
have an understanding of cloud storage.
Many cloud storage providers use object storage as opposed to block
storage, which means that connecting to such a provider will typically involve
the use of a cloud storage gateway. Another trend is that some organizations
have begun striping data across multiple clouds in an effort to prevent a
cloud provider from becoming a single point of failure. This technique is
commonly referred to as BRIC (Bunch of Redundant Independent Clouds).
My point is that cloud storage can be vastly different from enterprise storage.
As time goes on, it will become increasingly common for some VMs to exist
on cloud storage. As such, it may be in virtualization administrators' best
interest to start learning about cloud storage if they have not already.
Although nobody really knows for sure what the future of server virtualization
jobs looks like, it seems like a safe bet that in five years, virtualization
technology will be almost unrecognizable. As such, it is important for
virtualization administrators to begin building skills that will enable them to
cope with next-generation virtualization jobs and technologies.

The hyper-convergence trend will demand new job skills

By: Keith Townsend

Page 3 of 7

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

Are the days where you could stay in high demand by just being the best
virtualization administrator over?

Contents
Hyper-convergence is having an impact on both the infrastructures you

Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

manage and the overall job of the engineer. There's little doubt that service
providers will have a steady demand for engineers focused on the compute
stack of the data center. The scale of these environments dictates that
engineers need to be well versed in the nuances of server virtualization.
On the other hand, hyper-convergence promises reduced operating
expenses. To CIOs, this is code for reducing head count. What should you
do to keep your skills relevant if your company invests in a hyper-converged
infrastructure?
First, it's important to understand the architecture and appeal of a hyperconverged approach. Vendors have attempted to offer converged products
for years. HP once offered storage arrays built on their server platform. As
x86 hypervisors took hold within the data center, we saw cross-vendor
converged products make headway.
Today's hyper-converged options
One of the most popular hyper-converged products today is VCE. VCE's
vBlock reference architecture combines Cisco network and server hardware,
VMware vSphere and EMC storage. Converged platforms such as vBlock
give companies a solid design foundation and one vendor to go to for
support. One operational disadvantage to the vBlock approach is the reliance
on separate roles or groups needed to managed each sub-component. Most
midsize to large businesses still rely on dedicated storage, server and
network administrators to manage the converged platform.
Hyper-converged products combine all the major subcomponents in a single
appliance or "brick." In most cases, a single 2U server will provide the
virtualization platform, memory, CPU and storage needed to run a simple
virtualized infrastructure. These products incorporate a scale-out architecture

Page 4 of 7

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

that allows expansion by just adding another appliance to the infrastructure.

To this point we've mostly described a combination of commodity hardware,
but it's a software layer that makes hyper-converged products truly

Contents

appealing. By providing a proprietary interface for management, vendors

offer a single pane of glass administration for the core infrastructure. This

Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

allows a single engineer to manage a large cluster of hyper-converged

nodes, and engineers do not have to worry about the complexity of
configuring a storage area network. On the low end of the market, vendors
such as Scale Computing market their products to organizations without a
virtualization admin.
The aim of any hyper-converged solution is to reduce the administrative
overhead associated with a virtualized infrastructure, but what skill should
you develop to remain a high-demand resource? If you want to continue
adding to your technical skill, you can go the DevOps route, or you could
explore the business side of IT operations.
Better your technical skills
The drive for operational efficiency will not be solved by convergence alone.
Converged platforms don't solve every administrative challenge nor does
every workload lend itself to the architecture. The need to automate
infrastructure tasks provides the ability to automatically provision servers,
VLANs and storage based on a request from the developer or workload
demand and will be a critical value-add for enterprise engineers moving
forward. Automation tools and cloud management solutions are two exciting
technologies that have increasing demands.
To frame the problem, convergence doesn't solve the challenge of
requesting and provisioning the infrastructure. While convergence simplifies
the provisioning of resources, it doesn't address the challenge of creating
VLAN's, making firewall rule changes, creating (or destroying) a virtual
machine and all the other tasks associated with actually bringing up a
workload. Automation tools include products such as Puppet, Chef and
vCloud Automation Center and, generally speaking, take repeatable and
programmable tasks and automate them with scripting.

Page 5 of 7

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

Even if organizations don't have a traditional use case for elastic cloud-aware
applications, there's potential value in cloud management products. One of

Contents

the best use cases is self-service. The ability of development, test and QA
teams to provision resources from a self-service portal is a tremendous

Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

value. This capability can be found in products such as CloudStack,

OpenStack and VMware vCloud Director.
DevOps is one option, but if you'd like to keep a technology focus as a
secondary skill, then networking is also a solid option.
Better your business skills
Another way to display versatility is by developing some type of business
skill. The two most common skills I see in the field are project management
and business analysis. Both roles require an understanding of both
information technology and the business supported by the technology.
Project management is a fairly common skill to add, as most engineers find
themselves in a position where they are managing the implementation of
technology projects. For IT pros interested in this route, the Project
Management Professional certification allows you to show your knowledge
and boost your resume.
Gaining experience as a business analyst can be more difficult. Engineers
should seek cross-training opportunities that include shadowing or leading
requirements reviews. The ability to translate business requirements into
technical requirements shows that you can fully understand the business
value of technology. Additional topics that can help in this endeavor include
understanding financial terms related to projects and budgets, such as
capital expense vs. operational expenses, total cost of ownership, return on
investment and net present value.
As hyper-converged infrastructure becomes more popular, maintaining your
appeal as a virtualization professional will require adding a skill over and
above understanding virtualization technologies.

Page 6 of 7

Virtualization trends demand new job skills

Contents
Virtualization trends
demand new job skills

Free resources for technology professionals

TechTarget publishes targeted technology media that address your need for
information and resources for researching products, developing strategy and
making cost-effective purchase decisions. Our network of technology-specific
Web sites gives you access to industry experts, independent content and
analysis and the Webs largest library of vendor-provided white papers,
webcasts, podcasts, videos, virtual trade shows, research reports and more
drawing on the rich R&D resources of technology providers to address
market trends, challenges and solutions. Our live events and virtual seminars
give you access to vendor neutral, expert commentary and advice on the
issues and challenges you face daily. Our social community IT Knowledge
Exchange allows you to share real world information in real time with peers
and experts.

What makes TechTarget unique?

TechTarget is squarely focused on the enterprise IT space. Our team of
editors and network of industry experts provide the richest, most relevant
content to IT professionals and management. We leverage the immediacy of
the Web, the networking and face-to-face opportunities of events and virtual
events, and the ability to interact with peersall to create compelling and
actionable information for enterprise IT professionals across all industries
and markets.

Related TechTarget Websites

Page 7 of 7