Virtualization, Cloud Pros in Demand

The tech in highest demand according to its mention in job ads is programming in Java or J2EE, or database administration, because those skills are part of almost every IT project. Among the fastest-growing skills, however, are virtualization-which at about 2000 ads is 21 percent above this time last year-and cloud computing, which went from zero last year to 300 today.

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources. Operating system virtualization is the use of software to allow a piece of hardware to run multiple operating system images at the same time. The technology got its start on mainframes decades ago, allowing administrators to avoid wasting expensive processing power.

Beginning in 2005, virtualization software was adopted faster than anyone imagined, including the experts. There are three areas of IT where virtualization is making headroads, network virtualization, storage virtualization and server virtualization. You also see companies like USAToday, Delta, Newsweek or Netflix posting them, it's not just the higher-tech Silicon Valley companies that are looking for virtualization.

Virtual servers are so much easier to maintain than physical servers that it's possible for very small staffs to manage large virtual infrastructures, reducing the number of bodies needed in the data center.

A November, 2009 report sponsored by VMware (VMW), says that in U.S. companies the average number of physical servers one administrator manages is 65. The average for virtual servers is 77. That's not shockingly high, but it does represent an increase in staff efficiency (and a reason not to need to hire more staff) of about 10 percent.

Source: CIO Magazine, Kevin Fogarty, 1/19/10