In honor of my friend @quine on Twitter who today complained thusly:
In case you're reading this with Lynx (you web pimp, you!,) Zach was lamenting the fact that vendors who don't support customer operating systems of choice are simply sloughing off development efforts and support by suggesting that customers should simply run it as a VM instead.
Ah, it used to be called "software," but now it's a "virtual appliance!" Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.
One might suggest this is a perfectly reasonable use of virtualization technology -- neigh one of the very purposes behind its genesis. I'd agree, to a point. However, I've noticed an alarming uptake recently by product managers who are simply short-cutting roadmap/development paths by taking the "lazy" way out.
Hey, it cuts down support, testing, regression and troubleshooting...for the vendor. But in my favorite commentary, it's simply a "squeezing the balloon problem" because it surfaces a whole host of other issues such as performance, scale, and in some cases support for various virtualization platforms.
What say you? Do you see this happening more in your enterprise? Do you care? Is it a good thing?
/Hoff