If you're an IT  veteran, you probably remember the days when skepticism surrounded the concept of virtualization . It was a niche market, they said. Enterprises won't invest, they said. It won't be a game-changer. they said. Now, 'they' are singing a different tune and the proof is in the numbers.
According to research firm IDC, spending on virtualization software and services is expected to exceed $15 billion worldwide by 2011, up from $6.5 billion in 2006. The desktop virtualization market alone will make up $2 billion of that total. And, sales of virtualization management software are set to hit $2.7 billion this year, Gartner reports.
Considering the many layers of virtualization -- hardware , network and storage , applications and desktops -- and services for them all, the virtues of virtualization are well recognized in today's IT world.
But how will those virtues pan out in a down economy? Dan Burris, founder and CEO of Burris Research, a research and consulting firm that forecasts technology trends, expects to see enterprises investing in virualization of all types (hardware, networks and storage, as well as applications) because virtualization breeds efficiencies.
"Virtualization can save large amounts of both time and money, but virtualization is more that a money saving strategy. It allows for rapid scalability and offers flexibility, two important attributes in times of rapid change," Burris said. "It also allows a mobile workforce access to enterprise -level applications and data , plus unlimited storage 24/7."
End-to-End Virtualization Benefits
For all the benefits of virtualization, the upside of investing in this technology is magnified in a down economy, according to Simon Crosby, CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division at Citrix. Despite early challenges with application certification and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and PCI in the credit card industry, Crosby said the barriers are rapidly falling and there's little that cannot be virtualized today with great confidence.
"Virtualization offers tremendous savings in cooling , in power , in real estate, and in labor costs," Crosby said. "Once you get past the consolidation benefits, you get even greater abilities. With virtualization, any workload can run anywhere, anytime, instantly on any server . If that server or a virtual machine happens to fail, you have availability to another machine instantly. It's all automated." (continued...)
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