The other night while out with some friends I heard something that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. Something that’s really made me think.

I have a friend who’s always running at 120%, and is unable to handle the curve balls life throws at you. He’s very prone to stress, anxiety, and I’m afraid he’s going to suffer some bad health unless he changes.

The other night as we were out eating, I tried expressing my concerns and after a while he finally stated “If I change, then I’ve lost who I am.”

This firm statement put an end to that conversation, but it started me thinking. First I thought about change itself, and the fact that change is the only constant. Everything and everyone changes. Change is going to happen. The trick is to try to change in ways that are beneficial. We should always be trying to change into something better than we are now.

So what does this have to do with virtualization? Let’s think about how the IT industry has changed. In 1997 I tried to install an email system in the company I worked for, only to be told my the CEO that it wasn’t needed. In 1999 the company I worked for had a blackberry server. At the time blackberries were numeric pagers and only the top brass in our company had them. Now, these two technologies have merged and having email access anywhere on your blackberry is a given for most.

The industry changes, and we have to respond. We have to see the changes that are happening, and try to move in the most intelligent direction we can.

As for my friend, I only hope he realizes that change can be good.