CIO and Virtualization: "Wait'n See" or act now?

I can fully understand the pressures of being a CIO. Someday I might be at that post, although I'd rather be a CSO ;-). But seriously the time to wait and see is come and gone, CIOs, Sr. Managers are gearing up to act. The ones who still want to see the virtualization phenomena as a freak wave, might have to really put on those glasses and aim for their guns.

I might (Still need Citrix to confirm that for me though ;-))be doing a CIO/Business Strategy Session at the upcoming Citrix Summit "Synergy 08", and the audience are CIOs and business managers. I'd love to share with you my perspectives/insights that I have gained in various industries.

Anyways here a perspective from the Arab world:

With more of the same set to arrive in forthcoming generations of server technology, there is a potential temptation to play ‘wait and see' - although as virtualisation is apparently here to stay, this process is likely to be never-ending.

Potentially more interesting is the impact virtualisation will have on client devices, especially in larger enterprises and those with significant customer-facing operations, such as banks or call centre operators.

By giving enterprises the possibility of creating hundreds or thousands of virtual machines, virtualisation has put thin clients on the corporate IT map again - and this time they might even catch on.

From an upgrade point of view, thin clients are very good news for firms - after an enterprise buys the initial stock of thin client terminals (usually slightly cheaper than regular desktops), it will be able to operate them for a much longer period of time than equivalent desktops. Then, if a user requires additional resources, this is simply a matter of back-end provisioning.

More here from my Middle East brothers...