Virtualization Daily

Linux.com is running an interview with Brett Adams VP of development at rPath where they talk a bit about virtual appliances. Brett expects to see virtual appliances really catching on in the second half of 2007.

“It’s not entirely clear whether we’re going to see it gaining momentum in the first half of the year,” Adams says, “But I think by the latter half of 2007, the virtual appliance concept will have taken root. That’s based on [rPath’s] conversations with various industry participants, and also on looking at what some of the other industry analysts are saying. But it’s a little unclear still in what form.”

Clearly it’s early days for the virtual appliance concept, but I’m definitely seeing more interest and as the platform providers such as rPath, JumpBox and VirtualAppliances.net mature we’ll see more adoption. The key there is production quality appliances, which many of the current ones simply aren’t.

“Virtualization makes it easier to consume software,” Adam says. “It simplifies installation dramatically, and if you do a virtual appliance that is maintainable and updatable, then customers become less and less consumed with IT issues, and more concerned with whether they’re getting business value.”

Maintainable and updatable are the key words there. That’s what the virtual appliance platform vendors are hard at work solving.

Traditionally, software vendors have assumed that management of their products is the customers’ concerns. However, as virtualization takes hold, Adams expects to see vendors as starting to offer managed services. “One of our hypotheses about what virtual appliances can do is freeing the end user from worrying about the IT stack, operating system, and other issues, because they’re essentially black box and having the software provide all that, which shifts responsibility and control” Adams says. “Now, [if that happens] you have to ask: ‘If I were a software vendor, what would I need?’”

That’s the key value proposition for virtual appliances. The business gets the software they need in a simple to deploy and manage form factor. And with a managed virtual appliance they get many of the benefits of software as a service, but without their critical data leaving the firewall. For software vendors who move into this space early, this can be a solid advantage over their competitors who still burden the customer with support responsibility for the software stack.