Explain Virtualization to Non-Techie

rickagosto0988 · 2012-10-02T17:12:41.000Z

So what do a school bus, four teenage daughters, an apartment complex, a six-foot sub and a hotel have in common? They can all be used for virtualization analogies!

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/several-ways-to-explain-virtualization-to-a-non-techie-person/

martinpeverley · 2012-10-02T17:22:41.000Z

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

Rivitir · 2012-10-02T17:23:49.000Z

Interesting.

Or you could tell them to attend a SpiceU Virtualization class.

scott696d · 2012-10-02T17:24:17.000Z

I agree with the author - I like the subway analogy the best too (although as my daughters get older that may change :-).

kelly · 2012-10-02T17:37:18.000Z

I like the two hotel analogies. The subway sandwich one breaks down way too fast in my mind…may be…hmm.

justin-e · 2012-10-02T17:45:24.000Z

Thanks for the link. These are some great analogies.

chadkeiser · 2012-10-02T17:47:57.000Z

I just say it’s two computers (or more) in one.

Chad

scottalanmiller · 2012-10-02T18:08:34.000Z

I don’t explain under the hood technical details to non-technical people. There is no upside but many downsides.

johnwhite · 2012-10-02T18:11:59.000Z

Limey:

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

That’s stretching things. :-/

scottalanmiller · 2012-10-02T18:20:27.000Z

John White:

Limey:

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

That’s stretching things. :-/

Yes, many of them confuse the matter, I think. Focusing on common misconceptions of virtualization and not on what it is. Why would anyone want to explain it to a person with the foundation to understand it anyway?

johnwhite · 2012-10-02T18:29:57.000Z

It’s like everyone buys a bus. And that bus is going to a hotel. Wait, the bus has a bathroom. Wait…

johnwhite · 2012-10-02T18:30:32.000Z

This vs.

johnwhite · 2012-10-02T18:31:03.000Z

… this.

alvilleneuve · 2012-10-02T18:32:14.000Z

Scott Alan Miller:

John White:

Limey:

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

That’s stretching things. :-/

Yes, many of them confuse the matter, I think. Focusing on common misconceptions of virtualization and not on what it is. Why would anyone want to explain it to a person with the foundation to understand it anyway?

Because those people pay for the virtualization upgrade?

scottalanmiller · 2012-10-02T18:35:54.000Z

BigL16:

Scott Alan Miller:

John White:

Limey:

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

That’s stretching things. :-/

Yes, many of them confuse the matter, I think. Focusing on common misconceptions of virtualization and not on what it is. Why would anyone want to explain it to a person with the foundation to understand it anyway?

Because those people pay for the virtualization upgrade?

Okay, but if you are justifying things under the hood, you might as well have them do your job because if they don’t understand all of it, the some of it that they get will just make them dangerous. If the business is paying for only the IT needs that it understands then either IT has no purpose or the business is clueless. Neither is healthy.

You don’t have HR explain all of the HR things that they do or only have accountants so the bits that the business “gets.” It’s not like that. We belittle IT and degrade our value when we try to justify, through technology, to the business what we do. We need to be better than that. If the business wants to succeed it needs to trust IT.

Virtualization is an “always” technology. You never run without it (never is strong, but essentially.) And it is free. You never need to justify virtualization. Maybe you want to justify failover or something else. But you need to justify those on business terms (this saves X money, this reduces Y risk) - not on an explanation of how it is going to do that.

alvilleneuve · 2012-10-02T18:54:49.000Z

I work for a non-for-profit company and have to justify to a board of directors virtually every bit of budget I want. They don’t usually ask too many questions, nor do they just say yes to whatever I ask for.

I found this link very helpful and will probably use one of these examples if I need to.

scottalanmiller · 2012-10-02T19:00:23.000Z

BigL16:

I work for a non-for-profit company and have to justify to a board of directors virtually every bit of budget I want. They don’t usually ask too many questions, nor do they just say yes to whatever I ask for.

I found this link very helpful and will probably use one of these examples if I need to.

The fear is that once you do that for consolidation, then they don’t trust you when you do it for some other reason of the consolidation doesn’t pan out.

rickagosto0988 · 2012-10-02T19:06:10.000Z

I do love the feedback however I believe the point of the article was missed or perhaps taken as a demoralization of the role an IT professional plays in any business. It was a humorous article of how to basically explain a not so novice concept by removing the terms that have become a second language to those deemed Capsaicin. Most of us have friends or family who are genuinely interested in what we are doing on those screens. A way for a future SpiceHead to wrap their head around a concept that will play a huge role in this ever evolving industry. Or just have a laugh. Just saying…

alexanderboujos4095 · 2012-10-03T02:41:03.000Z

Scott Alan Miller:

BigL16:

Scott Alan Miller:

John White:

Limey:

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

That’s stretching things. :-/

Yes, many of them confuse the matter, I think. Focusing on common misconceptions of virtualization and not on what it is. Why would anyone want to explain it to a person with the foundation to understand it anyway?

Because those people pay for the virtualization upgrade?

Okay, but if you are justifying things under the hood, you might as well have them do your job because if they don’t understand all of it, the some of it that they get will just make them dangerous. If the business is paying for only the IT needs that it understands then either IT has no purpose or the business is clueless. Neither is healthy.

You don’t have HR explain all of the HR things that they do or only have accountants so the bits that the business “gets.” It’s not like that. We belittle IT and degrade our value when we try to justify, through technology, to the business what we do. We need to be better than that. If the business wants to succeed it needs to trust IT.

Virtualization is an “always” technology. You never run without it (never is strong, but essentially.) And it is free. You never need to justify virtualization. Maybe you want to justify failover or something else. But you need to justify those on business terms (this saves X money, this reduces Y risk) - not on an explanation of how it is going to do that.

Yes but you will always get the question “What is it?” These are nice examples (especially the pictures, everyone loves colourful pictures!) of a way to quickly say “Virtualisation is the path we want to take, it will save us money. This is what it does, this is how it will save us money (hardware costs)”.

I think I.T will still need to justify its existence for a long time. We cost a lot of money, and we generate them (on the direct books) NOTHING. So a very classically trained accountant merely says “minimize this cost to increase revenue”. Yes we provide an invaluable service, and when everything goes wrong they’ll ask why we don’t have the solution they refused to pay for but, well, that’s the life of I.T.

*side note - any way to set up an AUS / BRITISH spell checker, Colour has a “U” dammit!!!

brycekatz · 2012-10-03T08:49:55.000Z

BigL16:

Scott Alan Miller:

John White:

Limey:

Most of those analogies actually make sense.

That’s stretching things. :-/

Yes, many of them confuse the matter, I think. Focusing on common misconceptions of virtualization and not on what it is. Why would anyone want to explain it to a person with the foundation to understand it anyway?

Because those people pay for the virtualization upgrade?

If you have to explain what’s “under the hood” for IT decisions, You’re Doing It Wrong. Large organizations will have their own IT budget, hopefully under the control of a competent IT professional. Smaller organizations typically have centralized purchasing, but if “Because I can save you $X, reduce recovery time from Y hours to Z minutes” isn’t good enough, you’re probably dealing with trust issues. I won’t deal with a client that doesn’t trust that I’m acting in their best interest.