vTheology: The Study of Virtualization as a Religion?
March 8th, 2009 | 
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Theology is defined as the study of religion. After reading the Virtual Gipsy blog post VMware as Religion and browsing all the other anthropological observation themed posts on that site I was prompted to consider the possibility that virtualization may actually be best compared to a religion, and VMware may just be it’s largest denomination. In my scenario vTheology could be coined the field of study concerning all virtual infrastructure technology and it’s supporters. Sound crazy or humorous? This post explores the comparisons made by Brenda (twitter name @b_renda), the Virtual Gipsy author, as well as some light-hearted observations of my own.
First, wikipedia describes religion in part as:
“… both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. “Religion” is sometimes used interchangeably with “faith” or “belief system,”but it is more socially defined than personal convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively.”
Using that aspect of the definition, it’s easy to see how virtualization, not to mention any widely adopted technology, can be compared to a religion. However, the prevalent popularity of virtualization today and the constant debate over which vendor offers the best data center salvation choice makes for a well defined congregation.
Brenda sets the stage with her VMworld Europe 2009 focused view, but her professor -like analysis serves as a great start to expanding the concept to the entire technology.
“Words like guru, evangelist, high priests, cardinals, belief, followers, gospel, VMware-ism, atheist and disciples were all used several times in my (virtual or physical) presence. That struck me, since I had never before associated software with something ’soft’ like religion. I had always thought of it as scientific: mathematical, logical, measurable, and not as emotional, spiritual and intuitive. But hey, if they say so, and keep saying it, there has got to be something more to it right? I have divided these religion-related words into two groups: the ones that describe certain categories of people (guru, evangelist, high priest, cardinal, follower, atheist and disciple) and the ones that point at virtualisation as a whole (belief, gospel and VMware-ism ).”
Be sure to read her Blog for all of Brenda’s observations. Who knows, but Virtual Gipsy may one day be considered the “old testament” of a future generation of cloud admins.
Taking it a step further, can’t we draw a comparison (if we really wanted to) between
religious historical examples such as the medieval crusades, inquisitions, offensive jihads, and fatwas with today’s battles for market share between virtualization vendors? Is there not just an as passionate and emotional defense about the various paths to a virtual infrastructure promised land?
Of course, I could argue that there are times when virtualization followers border on cult activity too. I’ve admitted to “drinking the kool aid” several times here at VM /ETC.
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