LYT2-Task 3
Assess and Adopt a Virtualization
Adoption Plan
What is Virtualization?
Virtualization, in computing, refers to the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including but not limited to a virtual computer hardware, platform, operating system (OS), storage device or computer network resources.
Hardware virtualization or platform virtualization refers to the creation of a virtual machine that acts like a real computer with an operating system. Software executed on these virtual machines is separated from the underlying hardware resources. For example, a computer that is running Microsoft Windows can host a virtual machine within it and can load Linux (Ubuntu) that looks like a computer with the the operating system Ubuntu Linux. i.e. both operating systems Microsoft Windows and Linux can be loaded in the same machine with Ubuntu Linux is in the virtual machine. Ubuntu-based software can be run on the virtual machine.
Server Virtualization: This refers to creating a server in the cloud for example Amazon Web Services where virtual servers can be created and can be accesses as a service. 1. Description about how the benefits of virtualization would impact the city of Seabreeze.
The city has a Physical server environment which consists of 72 servers, the storage environment of DAS (Direct Attach Storage) and 350 desktop or end computers. This setup can be virtualized by purchasing space for storage, server and end computing. This can be a service like amazon web service (AWS) where the server space, storage space and computing space is provided as a service. AWS has chain of servers in different locations and they provide the infrastructure as a service.
By purchasing this service the benefits are a) No need of physical space b) No need for maintenance c) No need for supporting and maintenance staff d) Existing physical set up can be sold and fund can be raised. e) Using Virtualization server & storage space can be expanded when needed. f) Multiple operating system / environment can be used. g) It can be accessed anywhere. h) Load can be reduced i) Speed can be increased.
The above list indicates some of the benefits by virtualization that would impact or improve the financial condition of the city of Seabreeze. 2. How to offset the potential negative implications of the adoption of virtualization for the city of Seabreeze.
The potential negative implications are a) New technology and hence training and awareness are required. a. Offset: Training on the Technology adopted and the system needs to be arranged for employees and for people involved in this system. Trainings can run in batches and people can slowly get accustomed to the new system. b) Initially it is Difficult to adopt for common people. b. Offset: People of Seabreeze are very good at completing day-to day task but needs attention for highly technical task. As adopting Virtualization and running the system is quite an intensive technology for common people and it requires buffer time to get align with it. c) Less staffs are required and so reduction or cut in job c. Offset: Self Retirement with benefits can be introduced to reduce the staff without affecting anyone so that both the goals are met. Reducing the number of staffs as well as, without affecting the career of staffs who have served for long will be taken care by having such schemes. d) Loss of job for maintenance people. d. Offset: Maintenance people can be trained in some other tasks and can be deployed. Introduction of new technology needs lot of other skills which can be acquired by the maintenance people so that proper utilization of the existing human resource will be taken care. e) Regular rent has to be paid for AWS or similar kind of service. e. Offset: The fund rose by selling the physical facility/ system can be invested to fetch the monthly rent required to meet the virtualization service. f) Technology needs to be upgraded and abreast with the current technology. f. Offset: Once it is virtualized, regular patches or other software up-dation need to be installed and an eye on the advancement is required to operate successfully. That can be done by Training the staffs with required skills and keeping pace with Technology advancement. 3. Analyzing the current state of diffusion of virtualization Technology.
IT organizations are the early adopters of virtualization. Later organizations which support IT are the adopters of virtualization. Now many organizations and even educational institutions are adopting slowly. General public are adopting desktop virtualization and thus virtualization is spread across and gaining popularization day by day.
Because of the availability of advanced technology systems like cloud and because of the requirement of maintenance for the physical system, in today’s scenario physical server systems are getting outdated. It needs to be always operational when considering some systems like Non Stop servers. For example a bank ATM server need operation throughout the clock and it requires nonstop operation. So there should be back up server in many locations and whenever there is a breakdown the help of backup server is to be availed. Site reliability engineers are responsible to keep the servers active always and they have to get into action whenever there is a breakdown.
Therefore in many cases adopting virtualization is a good solution rather than maintaining physical servers. The adoption depends on the type of business and technology involved. 4. Discussion of potential barriers to the local government’s adoption of virtualization. a) Seabreeze is a mid-sized city and hence availability of Technical people is less compared to a big city. As it is given in the scenario, it is stated that it is midsized city and hence orientation towards technology will be less compared to a major city. For example in New York and San Francisco the availability of Technical pool is high compared to other cities and all the operations are oriented towards advanced technology compared to other cities. Many job options are available in big cities and hence people tend to live in such cities. It indicates that the availability of Technical pool who can relocate even from other cities to big cities are high compared to mid-sized city. So availability of less Technical pool will be one barrier for adopting Virtualization. b) The employees of Seabreeze are not well versed with Technology. The employees of Seabreeze are not well versed with Technology but they are good at day to day tasks. Because of these learning new technical aspects to cope with new tasks will be difficult as adoption of virtualization leads to performing tasks that are technically prominent. This could also be a potential barrier for adopting virtualization. c) They are good at day-to-day tasks but do not have deep understanding of computers, networking or internet. As the adoption of Virtualization involves the usage of internet, network connections and other stuffs related to online actions or tasks, being obsolete to new technology or innovation may become hindrance for advancement or adopting new Technology. d) Citizens of Seabreeze are attuned to the expenditure. Citizens of Seabreeze are cautious about expenditure and keep track on each type of expenditures so that to ascertain its essence. If it is not essential, they will try to avoid such expenditure. This may be a barrier some time as adopting virtualization attracts some unseen expenditure even though beneficial at long run. e) It is not an IT city hence the services may not be efficient compared to an IT city. Since Seabreeze is not an IT city it may have some disadvantages. For example San Francisco will have more IT compatibility services compared to any other city because IT services consumers are located greater in this location. So IT services will be better in that locality compared to other city. This may not be a big barrier as now a day there are so many modes of services available and hence if one is not available company can rely on other modes of service. 5. Discussion on how to gain the support of opinion leaders in Seabreeze. a) The opinion leaders have to be educated with the advantages of virtualization and Technology. b) Leaders have to be taught about the money saving and the betterment of Seabreeze by adopting virtualization. c) They have to be made clear about the savings of physical environment. d) Future expansion options have to be made clear to them. e) This move indirectly influences the development of the city and it should be made clear to them. 6. Explanation about where the city of Seabreeze falls on the Technology adoption curve.
Technology adoption curve is the graph which shows the % variation of different organizations adopting Technology, in this case virtualization against market share. An important and influential idea discussed by Rogers (Rogers, 1995) is the concept of adoption and the categories described. This concept states that, for any given innovation, a certain percentage of the population will readily adopt the innovation, while others will be less likely to adopt. According to Rogers, there is usually a normal distribution of the various adopter categories that forms the shape of a bell curve (see Figure 1). “Innovators”, those who readily adopt an innovation, make up about 2.5% of any population. “Early Adopters” make up approximately 13.5% of the population. Most people will fall into either the Early Majority (34%) or the Late Majority (34%) categories. “Laggards”, those who will resist an innovation until the bitter end, comprise about 16% of the population. The concept of adopter categories is important because it shows that all innovations go through a natural, predictable, and sometimes lengthy process before becoming widely adopted within a population.

In this case adoption of Virtualization is an IT advanced concept, and Innovators in this arena comprises of IT and Software development companies. Financial institution and ecommerce’s companies fall under the category of early adopters. Companies having IT functionality and Transactions like Municipal Offices, Electricity & Gas companies fall under the category of Early Majority or late Majority and Organization having only manual operations fall under the category of laggards. Therefore Seabreeze which has the operation of Tax collection and other revenues can be classified to Early Majors category.

Two graphs shown below are two different ways of depicting diffusion among different organizations.

Diffusion of Virtualization-Fig 1

Diffusion Of Virtualization Fig 2:
As shown in the picture the city of Seabreeze falls on the point C (early majors) i.e almost 34% part of the curve of diffusion of Virtualization where Y-Axis is the market share. We can consider city of Seabreeze as early major as City of Seabreeze is a government organization having limited IT transactions. a. Discussion on one type of Strategy for addressing the technology adoption type of the city of Seabreeze: 1. One type of Strategy will be conducting the market research about the service providers for virtualization like AWS or other cloud system which is economical and affordable. 2. Working out the profit and loss for the operation of dismantling the physical servers and replacing virtualized systems. 3. Since the city of Seabreez is a Government Organization having moderate IT operations compared to an IT innovators or ecommerce organizations, strategy can be prepared by considering the above two points in terms of finance and conclusion can be drawn. Since Seabreeze is a government organization it can be classified under the category of early adopters and falls in that part in the bell curve. 7. Discussion on one strategy for addressing the technology acceptance of potential users in Seabreeze. a) Training has to be organized for the potential users about the benefits and savings by adopting virtualization. b) Operational details have to be transferred to the users either by training or distributing user manuals. c) End users like taxpayers and others have to be educated through website of the city office and other blogs. Website can contain the detailed explanation of adoption and other operational details which will make the users operation hassle free. Questions originating can be answered by employing a live chat for some time.
References
1. Rogers, E.M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations, 4th edition. New York: Free Press: 2. Wikipedia (2014), Retrieved from url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization