Of course, a robust virtualized platform is the foundation for virtually (cool pun!) all Cloud Computing – public clouds like Amazon and Google, or private corporate Clouds.

One really significant aspect of virtualization is the contribution that a virtualized IT platform makes to “Evergreen IT” – a term coined, I believe, by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In addition to reducing the number of physical servers, which of course reduces electrical consumption and heat generation (less air conditioning), most Hypervisor systems can be configured to automatically shut down servers that aren’t needed during periods when less capacity is required.

During a recent lunch with a client’s VMWare representatives, I was treated to a good explanation of the latest green-IT features offered by their suite of products. Although I haven’t put them to the test, yet, it sounds pretty impressive – e.g., claims of as much as 80% reduction in use of electricity (supported by a Gartner report)!

Given all of the benefits that IT virtualization (and Cloud Computing) is demonstrating, it’s hard not to visualize a future for IT that’s built on information utilities. Obviously, in these early years… most large corporations will maintain their own internal “IT utilities” and will realize tremendous benefits by doing so. But eventually…. Will it make sense for even mega-users of IT resources not to tap into the commercial “IT power plants”?

Of course, I’m also the guy who wrote an article in 1985, for our leading IT trade publication, in which I predicted that the age of the software “factory” was imminent! I could see quite clearly that object oriented architectures and tools were about to bring an end to the long and painful process of reinventing software for every new product or application. Oops!

But this time…. The future not only looks pretty compelling, it’s being proven more and more viable at a rapid pace.