Technology Trends in Virtualization Platforms

2024: Current technological trends and promising directions for the development of virtualization platforms

As part of the preparation of the Virtualization review, TAdviser asked market participants to talk about the most current trends in the development of virtualization platforms and promising areas. Among the trends, the interviewed experts noted the creation of more convenient and complete products for end consumers with fault tolerance functions, ease of configuration and configuration, migration tools. Among the technological trends, they distinguish the following areas.

Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.). Allows you to package applications with all dependencies into portable containers. Provides flexibility, scalability, and ease of deployment.

Supporting containerization is a key trend in recent years. It is becoming more and more popular due to the ability to run applications on any platform. This simplifies and reduces deployment time and infrastructure management. Also, containers can be easily scaled by adding new resources to them. Thanks to the automation of deployment and service management processes, companies can save money by reducing hiring, "explains Timur Badretdinov, head of the infrastructure software department at SysSoft.

Integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into virtualization management tools. Automates routine tasks, optimizes resource allocation, and predicts infrastructure needs.

Network Function Virtualization (SDN). Virtualizing network services such as routers, firewalls, load balancers increases flexibility and reduces network equipment costs.

Focus on safety and compliance. Becomes critical in the context of growing cyber threats, with virtualization offering opportunities to isolate applications and data as well as implement advanced security mechanisms. Particular attention is paid to the development of built-in security mechanisms and tools for protecting virtualized environments, as well as the consideration of regulatory requirements and compliance with information security standards.

GPU virtualization. Allows GPUs to be shared between virtual machines. It is in demand for machine learning, data analysis, rendering.

Network-based functional virtualization. Transforms traditional network functions into software solutions, enabling flexibility and scalability of network services.

Integration with cloud platforms. The tight integration of local virtualization platforms with public clouds provides hybrid scenarios, load portability, and disaster recovery. Thus, companies will be able to combine their own infrastructure with servers rented from the provider.

Hybrid and multi-cloud solutions allow you to flexibly manage data and applications using both private and public cloud resources.

Edge computing. Enables data to be processed closer to its source, requires new virtualization approaches for performance and security in distributed environments.

Hyperconverged infrastructures (HCIs). They are designed to simplify IT management and reduce maintenance costs by integrating computing, storage, and networking into a single solution.

There is a trend towards a horizontally scalable and software-defined IT infrastructure, and accordingly the developers of virtualization solutions will try to meet these customer needs. many vendors are already considering a hyperconverged approach that provides full horizontal scaling.

In the near future, interest in domestic hyperconverged systems will grow, which can become a good solution for medium-sized businesses due to their flexibility and the ability to use heterogeneous equipment to create a scalable IT infrastructure for solving any problems, - comments Ivan Smirnov, Product Manager Cyber ​ ​ Infrastructure of Cyberprotect.

Self-service and automation. Aimed at simplifying the deployment and management of virtualized environments, as well as improving the monitoring and scaling of resources.

Solutions that provide high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized services.

Manage heterogeneous platforms. Here, the goal is to create unified management platforms that allow you to integrate and control virtualized resources deployed on the basis of various vendors from a single interface.

Implement Open vSwitch-based software-defined networking mechanisms to replace VMware NSX.

Integrate and integrate virtualization and containerization platforms into a single solution. Here customers have a different vision: someone wants to do virtualization first, and then a separate segment of containerization, someone has the opposite.

Development of thin clients and control systems: improving operation in a geodistributed network on thin and bad channels, improving the functions of remote user support, expanding the list of managed software and hardware platforms, improving the friendly interface.

As the market grows, it is possible to divide platforms into classes: for state information systems (expensive reliable solutions, FSTEC certification), for large businesses (lighter solutions, without FSTEC certification), for service providers (hyperconvergence, storefronts, PaaS).

An important trend will be the integration of solutions with snapshots (backup solutions) and hardware virtualization, data synchronization with the main and backup platform at the hypervisor level. This functionality is important for business because it will help unload server virtualization. Such solutions are suitable for large installations.

Experts also note the growing demand for geodistributed and disaster-tolerant platforms, the transition to a microservice architecture, desktop and application virtualization (VDI), and the development of software-defined storage systems (SDS).

Read also

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• Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Base Article
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