I recently came across a thought-provoking blog post by StorageIO analyst and author Greg Schultz. Ruminating on themes in his new book “The Green and Virtual Data Center,” Schultz laments that the natural link between the concepts of virtualization and data center consolidation has led many to mistakenly conclude that these terms are synonymous. They aren’t. And even though consolidation is one of the leading reasons to virtualize today, it’s not the only good reason to consider the technology.

Furthermore, while the inherent cost and energy savings in consolidation are fueling much of the growth and interest in virtualization today, that won’t always be the case. Does that mean that when the economy rebounds, virtualization will become yesterday’s news? Far from it, argues Schultz. Despite “the perception and industry messaging that incorrectly pigeon holes virtualization to mean consolidation, and consolidation to mean virtualization,” Schultz warns us not to be sucked into the notion that virtualization without consolidation doesn’t have a bright future. “To the contrary, the reality is that there is life beyond consolidation (and) there are even more scenarios and far greater market opportunity for non-consolidation virtualization deployments over time, than what has already been seen for first wave of consolidation-centric virtualization scenarios.”

What are some of the reasons besides consolidation for virtualizing your servers, storage or other IT resources? How about simplified maintenance and technology updates, not to mention load-balancing, fault tolerance, and supporting business continuance (BC) and disaster recovery (DR)? According to Schultz, “We are just seeing the tip of the virtualization iceberg (or mountain).”

That’s good news if you’re in the virtualization business, since perhaps as few as 15% of all servers and storage systems are actually suitable to be consolidated – yet nearly all are suitable to be virtualized. What non-consolidation reasons can you think of to virtualize your server, storage, or even desktop systems? Or do you think virtualization is simply a consolidation-crazed “flash in the pan,” being driven by the IT community’s collective kneejerk reaction to an abysmal economy? I’d like to hear your views.