Has Server Virtualization Gone Mainstream?

Server virtualization is a clear efficiency booster and data centers of many sizes have moved to deploy this emerging technology. Yet recent reports suggest that virtualization still has a ways to go before it is considered a default data center technique.

In April, IDC’s
Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker reported that 18.2 percent
of all new servers shipped in the fourth quarter of 2009 were virtualized. More
significant than that though was the prediction (made that same week at Interop In Las Vegas) that “2010
will be the first year in which the number of deployed virtual servers will outnumber
the number of physical ones.”

This is a significant data point, as it indicates how mainstream virtualization
is. Think about it: Most organizations buy at least one server a year. Thus,
most enterprises will at least dabble in Virtualization. Many, we know, will
more than dabble.

IDCs rosy picture of breadth may have been darkened a bit this week, however,
when Gartner
weighed in on the depth side, noting that although more than 80 percent
of enterprises have virtualization programs or projects in place, it anticipates, “only
25 percent of all server workloads will be in a virtual machine (VM) by year-end
2010.”

Read the rest at ServerWatch.