Some of the key reasons for the proliferation of cloud services and virtualization technologies in the enterprise are measurable business benefits, such as improved flexibility of managing computing resources, decreases in operating cost and total cost of ownership (TCO). Many management vendors recognized this opportunity and enhanced their product portfolios with capabilities for managing the performance of virtualization and cloud technologies. However, only a few of these vendors are actually offering management products that are based on virtualization technology or using SaaS as a delivery method. So this brings up the following question: If organizations can achieve significant business benefits from virtualization and the Cloud when managing their computing resources, can they achieve similar benefits from using these technologies for managing the performance of IT and business services?

The changes in the economic climate that happened in late 2008 and 2009 forced organizations to take a hard look into their IT spend and find areas where they can cut cost and still be able to support the needs of end-users. Some of the main areas that many of them identified where:

• They were paying for management capabilities that they were not using
• They had computing resources that were underutilized
• Their operational cost for managing IT performance was too high

Even though they were able to recognize areas of inefficiency, they also recognized that there is not a whole lot that they can do to eliminate these inefficiencies for the short-term. They could not just get rid of their hardware that was underutilized, as they were still using it to support their business processes. They couldn’t all of a sudden replace their software solutions that their IT teams had been using for years just because they were paying too much for licensing fees and they didn’t need all of the capabilities. The only choice they had to cut cost was to let some of their IT staff go and try to manage “more with less”. But this also made IT executives realize that they need to take actions to avoid this type of management “deadlock” in the future and improve flexibility and utilization of their IT management solutions.

Some vendors recognized this opportunity and started offering products that are either provided as a virtual appliance or SaaS and on-demand. The most recent announcement around this issue was made by Kemp Technologies that now offers a SaaS-based solution for load balancing and application acceleration. This is not the first move in this market that would allow end-users more flexibility in accelerating their Web applications, but it is the first one of its kind. Certeon and Zeus Technologies have been providing virtual appliances for application acceleration for quite some time. These solutions can run as just another application on virtual machines and help end-user organizations reduce their management, maintenance and facility cost. However, Kemp’s Virtual LoadMaster is the first load balancing solution that allows end-user organizations to pay only for services that they are using, while providing capabilities that they are looking for.

Also, in September of 2008, Expand Networks acquired NetPriva and used the technology that they acquired to develop a new product, Mobile Accelerator Client (MACC), that was announced in May of 2009. The product works as a virtual appliance and it allows organizations to use peer-to-peer technology to achieve the benefits of data caching while mitigating the cost of managing a hardware solution. This product is different from the virtual appliances mentioned above as it does not use the computing power of servers, but the desktops of branch office employees.

On the other hand, several vendors are positioned to help end-users improve the flexibility of managing the performance of their IT services by offering SaaS and/or on-demand solutions for monitoring network, applications and systems. In February of 2009 ManageEngine made OpManager, their network management solution available on-demand. Also, AccelOps came out of stealth mode in June of 2009. They offer a highly customizable solution for monitoring network, application and server performance, availability, security and change management (CMDB) while providing an integrated view into the health of IT business services. AccelOps also provides robust capabilities for security log management. Their solutions can be deployed as virtual appliance or SaaS.

Also, is a UK-based company that provides Highlight, a SaaS product for monitoring network and application performance. In addition to these vendors there are companies, like Absolute Performance and New Relic, that provide on-demand solutions for monitoring application performance. New Relic specializes in monitoring the performance of Java, Ruby and JRuby applications while Absolute Performance provides capabilities for monitoring application in production, load testing and end-user experience monitoring.

One of the key benefits of these solutions is that they can co-exist with management solutions that organizations already have in place and still provide the full value. For example, you can use NetQoS or OPNET for monitoring your network, CA, HP, Compuware or Quest for managing your data center, Precise or OpTier for monitoring your transactions and still get the full value of SaaS and on-demand solutions, since they can help you close performance management gaps that you might have. You are paying only for the capabilities that you are using.

The benefits of virtualization technologies and Cloud services go beyond just hosting computing resources. It can also be applied to managing the performance of IT services. If you are an end-user, the next time technology vendors try to “pitch” you the benefits of the Cloud and virtualization so they can sell you their management products, please ask them: If the Cloud and virtualization are so good for me, why don’t you use them to deliver your products?