The transition from IT Production to Business Production is the most critical inflection point in the customer virtualization Journey. As I was collecting my thoughts on best practices around this  transition I ran into this post by Seth Godin which I think is very apropos

The Forces of Mediocrity by Seth Godin

But seriously, any transformation faces resistance. Sometime this resistance comes from legitimate concerns, but many times it is not justified and fed by natural fear of change or simply ignorance.  When I talk to customers who are over this inflection point they’ll say that “resistance is futile. Virtualization is our platform of choice to move IT forward”. These customers have acquired the competence, sponsorship and experience to do this over time or have faced a major business challenge that pushed them further and faster into the adoption. What do these customers know and do that others don’t? I try to share what we learned from them in this blog with posts on best practices, obstacles and adoption patterns and going forward more complete stories and interviews.

If you are a virtualization proponent, you will face the forces of mediocrity working against you at some point of your journey. You should know that you are definitely not alone and there are thousands (yes thousands) of customers who are over this hump and virtualize whatever comes their way, whether it is a print server, a mission critical app or an Oracle production database.

We are also working hard to build new technical and business tools to help you move swiftly through these obstacles and reap the benefits of a fully virtualized IT.

Vittorio