While recruiters have yet to see a significant spike in demand, the need for technology professionals with virtualization skills is growing in Asia.
Jessie Chhan, account manager at IT recruitment specialist Sapphire Technologies Singapore, noted that large companies across the region are starting to see the benefits of virtualization as the technology has now matured and stabilized.
"The demand for IT professionals with virtualization skills is growing, and we think that it won't take long for demand to start rising in the Asia-Pacific region," Chhan told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview.
Tay Kok Choon, country manager of JobStreet Singapore, said demand for virtualization expertise is getting a lift because the technology facilitates resource utilization, improves flexibility and reduces overall costs.
"All of these help organizations become more competitive," Tay said in an e-mail interview. He expects a "moderate" rise in demand for such expertise, especially from IT outsourcing providers under pressure to lower their fees.
In fact, according to Chhan, IT managed service providers gain most from acquiring virtualization skills. She explained: "Their returns on investment are the quickest, with lower capital outlay and equal, or higher, returns. Hosting service providers will benefit as well."
Although the general business community is slower at migrating to an infrastructure that supports virtualization, compared to managed IT service vendors, large multinational corporations are starting to require virtualization skills, Chhan said.
"Multinationals with hundreds of servers are seeing higher returns on investment as they tend to have various operating system platforms that support different business needs."
Chhan added: "[As more organizations see] inherent benefits of virtualization, there will be a more concentrated focus on professionals with these skills."
However, she said, companies are also now looking at hardware and software acquisition costs carefully in light of the economic climate.
Short in supply
And while the demand may be increasing, the supply of virtualization expertise--particularly for certified engineers--is short.
Chhan said: "The number of professionals with skills in this specialized area needs to increase in order to meet future labor demands in the region."
According to Tay, companies embracing virtualization tend to look for architects and engineers with experience in managing traditional systems.
"This may impact the virtual infrastructure performance and ability to perform," he said.
He noted that it is critical virtualization professionals clearly understand how the technology is implemented and the expected results from doing so. They can then suggest the best technology fit, based on the customer's requirements and budget.
Tay said: "We need a new group of professionals who are able to design new kinds of architectures, master new tools and interpret the results. They need to be comfortable with high-availability solutions, and know what impact each approach will have on the network, operating system or application level in the virtual data center."
He said system performance matters most in all virtualization efforts, and companies want architects with experience on various applications--from databases, to mail servers that come from different vendors.
"Having a clear idea of how many resources are needed for each product to perform, how each product is expected to behave in a correctly sized environment, and which products need special attention--such knowledge can only be acquired through years of work in data centers," Tay noted.
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