Enterprise IT managers expect to deploy more automation technologies and adopt best practice frameworks in an effort to better keep virtualization, service-oriented architecture and Web 2.0 technologies under control and operating efficiently, two recent surveys suggest.

"Effective IT management in today's complex data centers requires timely, accurate views of how servers , storage , networks, software and end-user systems are interacting," writes Mary Johnston Turner, senior market research analyst and primary author of the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) report "2008 IT Service & Infrastructure Management Survey." "Our research shows that it is virtually impossible to accomplish these objectives without help from IT management automation."

ESG surveyed 602 global IT decision makers to learn how datacenters are transforming and how IT managers are keeping up with the change. More than three-quarters of the respondents said they expect virtualization to extensively or moderately impact their IT management requirements over the next 24 months, with SOA and Web 2.0 expected to have a "similar impact," according to ESG.

The research revealed that 36 percent of those polled considered "highly effective IT organizations" are deploying IT management workflow automation across multiple technology layers, such as servers, storage, applications, and user devices. Six percent of those less effective organizations have currently invested in this type of IT management automation, ESG finds.

"ESG also found that IT service management best practices, such as ITIL -- as well as automated IT asset management tools and automated event monitoring, correlation and root-cause analysis tools -- contribute to highly effective IT environments," Turner writes.

Separately, management software maker CA sponsored an independent study that surveyed 300 CIOs worldwide to learn how they are using datacenter automation and what their plans are for the technology going forward. Sixty-five percent of those polled by CA said many of their datacenter tasks are automated, 31 percent of which are under centralized governance. On average, CIOs reported they are automating 48 percent of tasks in their datacenters today and they plan to increase that number to 56 percent in the next 18 months. Initiatives such as server consolidation, virtualization, performance management, and uptime and business continuity are driving the need for more automation, the survey shows.

"CIOs believe that by using policy and demand-driven automation they can meet these challenges and better respond to changing business needs," says Ben Scheerer, director of solutions marketing at CA.

CA also found that the use of automation depended directly on IT process adoption. Close to half said they are using the ITIL best practice framework, 30 percent are engaging in business service management efforts and 23 percent are implementing the standard laid out in COBIT. CA says adopting best practices prior to deploying automation ensures greater success.

"A lot of companies before they even automate a process they look to see that it is one that is repeatable and mature, such as patch management or server provisioning," says Sam Somashekar, a director of product management at CA. "The survey shows that if the process is not in place and it is not a repeatable process that can be mapped and measured, it would be very tough to put effective automation in place. A fool with a tool is still a fool."

Organizations deploying virtualization will spend three times more on services than software, according to a Springboard Research report released today.

The virtualization software and services market in Asia Pacific will grow at an estimated compound annual growth rate of 42 percent to reach $1.35 billion by 2010.

Virtualization services will grow to $1 billion by 2010, making up the bulk of market spend.

More than 50 percent of CIOs surveyed in Australia, China, India, and Singapore planning to deploy virtualization solutions over the next 18-24 months said the main drivers were to address issues like low system capacity utilization, poor performance, and other challenges associated with managing growing IT infrastructure.

Springboard Research vice president of software research, Michael Barnes, said virtualization, at least at the server level, is becoming an imperative and most companies will implement the technology at a server level in 2008.

"The complex nature of engagements with vendors while implementing virtualization solutions is a prime reason for services taking a larger share of the market," he said.

Barnes also believes there is a need for more customer education on the benefits of virtualization as the research revealed many organizations were unsure about how to approach deployment.

He said some CIOs view virtualization technologies as immature and feel that implementing it could introduce new management and security challenges.

"Virtualization is also primarily viewed from a technical perspective, and most CIOs do not link virtualization to solving business problems," Barnes added.

Springboard Research senior analyst, Ravi Shekhar Pandey, said vendors need to share case studies that link virtualization with direct business benefits. On the software side, Pandey said VMware is the Asia Pacific virtualization market leader with an estimated 70 percent market share.

This is followed by Microsoft, Parallels, Virtual Iron, and XenSource who also have a significant presence.

Pandey said the virtualization services market is dominated by several key players, including IBM, HP, Dell, and Sun.

"Australia and Korea lead the virtualization marketplace in Asia Pacific due to their well-built infrastructure, while Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and India are high growth potential markets," he said.

"To tap the emerging opportunities in virtualization, system integrators across the region are making significant investments in people and skills development.

"In the past year, many system integrators, especially multinational vendors, have doubled the number of people in their virtualization practice or are investing in building the services capabilities of their partners."

When deploying virtualization late last year, Wingham IT services manager, Chad Larka, said his biggest challenge was sourcing skilled staff.

"This may be one contributor to the high services spend; organizations having to invest in skills and support provided by vendors and system integrators," he said.

"It is always best to take a piecemeal approach to deploying a new technology, not a big bang approach. This can make all the difference."

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Curl has joined the Eclipse Foundation and detailed plans to base its rich Internet application development tools on the Eclipse framework.?

The company will develop a set of plug-ins for Eclipse that over time will replace current Curl development tools.

"Eclipse is no longer limited to the Java programming language. It is a universal IDE for any language platform, as the implementation of the Curl IDE in Eclipse demonstrates," said Bert Halstead, chief architect of Curl, in a statement released by the company. "Curl is the most powerful RIA platform for the enterprise and Eclipse is the best general-purpose IDE available today -- the combination is unbeatable."

The Curl IDE will be replaced with one based on the Eclipse framework. Included will be a set of plug-ins called the CDE (Curl Development Tools for Eclipse). The current IDE will be renamed Curl Classic IDE and coexist with CDE through at least the first release of the new tool, Curl said.

The first release of CDE will include Curl Classic IDE functionality such as a Curl language-sensitive editor, debugger, search and deployment capabilities. The Curl Visual Layout Editor also will be featured. Future releases of CDE will integrate Visual Layout Editor into the Eclipse Framework as a "Design Perspective," the company said.

Other capabilities will be improved, such as error highlighting in the source-code editor, language-sensitive navigation, and refactoring.

CDE currently is an alpha form with the public beta expected in mid-2008. Curl has become an Add-In Member of Eclipse

Five major PC makers will include Qualcomm's Gobi 3G mobile data technology in laptops, and Qualcomm expects six to nine carriers to support the system by year's end.

Gobi is a dual-mode modem that supports EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) Revision A and HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), the two main 3G networks in use around the world. It also includes GPS hardware. It is designed to help enterprise employees and other users stay connected wherever they are.

The five biggest PC OEMs will offer laptops with Gobi, Qualcomm officials said at a news conference on Tuesday at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas. Qualcomm had already identified Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Panasonic as planning to use it and declined to name the others. Dell announced on Tuesday that it will offer Gobi laptops. T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless have certified the technology, and Vodafone is expected to approve it soon, according to Qualcomm. The first products should hit the market in the second quarter, the company said.

The pioneer of CDMA (Code-Divison Multiple Access) has strong faith in 3G for the future, even as 4G technologies like WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) grab much of the network spotlight at CTIA. Qualcomm also said its EV-DO technology is gaining on the more widely used GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technologies, especially in developing countries such as India. There are about 385 million CDMA users worldwide, said Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's CEO.

Qualcomm is expanding the capacity of CDMA with a chipset for base stations announced Tuesday, the Cell Site Modem 8950. With it, carriers will be able to deliver more than twice the current capacity of 35 simultaneous calls in a narrow 1.25GHz band of spectrum, allowing carriers to continue leveraging 3G networks far into the future, Qualcomm said. The company expects commercial products to come out in 2010. It is designed for CDMA2000 1x initially and EV-DO with a future software upgrade.

The company has already announced it will supply LTE chipsets, and Jacobs boosted that technology over WiMax.

"We see the momentum right now continues to be with the LTE path," he said.

Also Tuesday, Qualcomm's Firethorn division joined Citigroups Citi Cards unit for credit-card account management tools on mobile phones. The companies expect to deliver the service by the third quarter. Holders of Citi Cards will be able to view their card balances, recent transactions, rewards information, and other data on the phone. The announcement is part of a broader push by Qualcomm into "mobile wallet" capabilities on phones, according to Len Lauer, an executive vice president and group president at Qualcomm. The company acquired Firethorn last November.

"We believe we can be a very strong player" in mobile wallet technology, which spans banking, coupons, loyalty cards, and in-store payment via near-field communications, Lauer said.

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