Virtualised computing becoming standard for Irish IT directors (video)

17 Apr 2012

Francis O'Haire, technical director, DataSolutions

Server virtualisation has become a well-practised standard in Ireland at this stage, paving the way for more flexible working practices and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, the technical director of DataSolutions Francis O’Haire told Siliconrepublic.com.

Speaking ahead of the Citrix and DataSolutions Virtual Computing Forum 2012 in June, O’Haire said IT directors and CIOs across Ireland see the move to server virtualisation as practical and the remaining firms yet to deploy the technology are more than likely sweating the last out of their old servers.

“In the next few months to a year they will be buying new servers and will virtualise,” he said.

As firms move to embrace desktop virtualisation, O’Haire says flexible working and BYOD policies are being driven by the workers of organisations themselves, heralding an interesting new paradigm in IT strategy.

“We are starting people bringing in tablets, smartphones and other devices and say to their IT managers ‘here, make this work for me because colleagues in another company are using these devices. That is driving what IT can do.

“It’s like IT has been building one way and new things are creeping in. If you start building IT to address the exceptions rather than the rule then you’ll be fine in years to come because those exceptions will become the rule,” he advises IT directors and CIOs who are struggling with this new reality.

“There’s a mix of attitudes out there at the moment. I think those IT managers who are forward-thinking will embrace the technologies, obviously, in a secure and controlled fashion. Anything that makes the users more productive has great benefit to the business.

“Those IT people who go ‘no, no, no, we must control everything – if you don’t consume it off a beige box on your desk it’s not IT’ – I think their time is gone and really you are restricting your users’ productivity,” O’Haire points out.

The Virtual Computing Forum 2012 will take place on Tuesday, 12 June, at the Guinness Store House in Dublin, in association with Citrix and Data Solutions

Watch a video of DataSolutions’ technical director Francis O’Haire talk about virtualisation and the new workplace here:

Francis O’Haire of DataSolutions on virtualisation and the new workplace 

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com