Virtualization gaining traction, Forrester report shows
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A new survey shows 51% of data centers are testing or using virtualization, up from 41% the last time the survey was done; use and awareness in SMBs are also growing.
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Report describes broadband rollout trends, maps availability, and recommends deployment strategy.
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Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced several moves it says will help its business customers take advantage of a technology called virtualization, and in the process help the software maker catch up with VMware Inc., the frontrunner in that area.
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Butler Group report predicts savings from virtualization as it reduces energy consumption and operating costs.
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Blog: Virtualization services are expected to turn into a $11.7 billion market by 2011, more than double its current level, according to an IDC report. VMware and its competitors are helping to drive this demand.
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Forrester research sees companies further integrating physical and network access. The trend could give providers an urge to merge.
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(InfoWorld) - In 2006, many enterprise IT groups saw the potential in virtualization, rushed to consolidate servers and subsequently propelledÂ VMwareÂ software to a market-leading spot. As 2007 begins, VMware's prices are under attack, just as more CIOs look to virtualization to control server and storage sprawl and tame data center power costs. For starters, VMware rivals XenSource and Virtual Iron Software have launched new open-source alternatives, undercutting VMware on price. Also, new processors, such as IBM's Power 5 and upcoming Power 6 chips, and new operating systems have virtualization capabilities built in, negating the need for some additional software, says Clay Ryder, president of The Sageza Group. Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10 OS includes a virtualization feature it calls Containers. MicrosoftÂ is expected to release a beta version of Windows Virtual Server in the first quarter of 2007 and ship it a year later. That's good news: As virtualization features become part of the hardware or the OS, software providers will have to offer useful extra features, Ryder says, such as automated new software testing or security patch management. Virtual Iron introduced Version 3.1Â of its virtualization platform in December for a license price of $499 per socket--compared to $2,875 per socket for a comparable VMware license. XenSource also introduced new virtualization products at sub-$1,000 prices. Both XenSource and Virtual Iron build their proprietary products on top of the open-source Xen platform for virtualization hypervisors. (A hypervisor lets a computer run multiple operating systems at once.) VMware's products are not based on open source. Meanwhile, middleware vendor BEA Systems is making its own cost-cutting move. In the first half of 2007,Â BEA plans to releaseÂ WebLogic Server Virtual Edition (WLS-VE), a version of its Java application server that includes Liquid VM--a BEA-specific Java Virtual Machine that lets Java applications run directly on a hypervisor without requiring an operating system to be present. This will let users substantially reduce the amount of computer power, lowering the hardware costs per application, says Guy Churchward, vice president and general manager of the Java Runtime Products Group at BEA Systems. Initially, Liquid VM will work only with VMware's ESX Server hypervisor. Analysts advise CIOs planning for virtualization in 2007 to think strategically, not just tactically. "To really make virtualization work you want to do it so end users access capability, not just specific machines," Ryder says. "That's only going to be possible if you take a strategic approach," he says, noting that virtualization needs to be applied to storage, networking and the introduction of new software, not just servers. Mike Williams, CIO for the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), learned a lesson about thinking strategically when he did a virtualization project in 2006. (The DCMA, a federal Department of Defense agency, places contract managers inside companies fulfilling defense contracts for weapons systems, jets, military equipment and parts.) Williams deployed VMware, reducing the agency's number of servers to 160 from 560 and the number of data centers to three from 17. But that move taxed the WAN when all the network traffic converged on the three data centers. His advice: Optimize the WAN first. Still, Williams likes the results. Before virtualization, DCMA replaced about one-third of its 560 servers annually at a cost of about $2 million, Williams says; virtualization cut that expense to $560,000.
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Attendees at Gartner's annual data center conference said their packaged applications have to be tested on servers equipped with virtualization software before they can adopt the technology. But some vendors may not have the wherewithal to do the testing.
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At VMware's user conference, server vendors lined up to pledge support for a "thin hypervisor" version of the company's virtualization software that can be built directly into systems.
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Some attendees at the Storage Networking World conference say they're combining backup software and de-duplication technology with virtual systems in an effort to manage ever increasing data stores.
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By this time next year, virtualization users may have their own industry-sanctioned benchmarking software for evaluating various virtualization environments.
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The data demonstrates Ubuntu's march into the enterprise.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft has laid out plans to become a bigger force in the market for virtualization software, stepping up its assault on established leaders such as VMware.
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Virtualization looks tasty, but VMware is so scary -- let's shack up with another also-ran!
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Microsoft today released a beta for a much-anticipated technology -- its Windows Server 2008 virtualization technology Hyper-V -- ahead of schedule.
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Beta 2 adds support for AMD's virtualization technology, plus integration with Active Directory.
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Hypervisor hype drives sales Virtualisation software giant VMware has pumped out impressive third quarter results with profit up 90 per cent buoyed by strong sales of its hypervisor package.â¦