Report: Virtualization growing in popularity

According to a recent Computerworld report, recent years seen a dramatic rise in the number of organizations choosing to utilize virtualization as part of their IT infrastructure solutions.
Server virtualization offers businesses a number of important benefits, but the key advantage that attracts many companies to virtualize their servers is cost reduction. According to the report, “virtualization’s cost savings are so dramatic and the technology is so widespread, it’s hard for end users to justify concern about having a physical server they can touch.”
According to a study published recently by research firm IDC, the popularity of virtualization is expected to continue growing rapidly in the comingyears. The study predicted more than 70 percent of all server workloads on new shipments in 2014 will be based on virtual machines.
Furthermore, more than 23 percent of all servers shipped in 2014 are likely to integrate active support for virtualization technology, the study predicted.
The size of the virtualized server market will also be driven by the popularity of the technology, according to the study. It is estimated that more than $19 billion will be spent on server hardware intended for virtualized applications in 2014. According to IDC, the expected compound annual growth rate of virtualized server shipments from 2009 to 2014 is approximately 14 percent. This is more than double the anticipated CAGR for the overall server market for the same period.
According to Computerworld, when virtualization technology first emerge, many business managers viewed it with suspicion. They saw the removal of the physical servers on which key applications ran as worrisome.
This has changed over time, as many have recognized the operational and financial benefits of virtualization. Brad Thompson, director of infrastructure engineering at Target, told Computerworld end users at his company no longer worry about what physical IT infrastructure looks like or where it is located.
“They ask if we’ve piloted it, have we proved it?” Thompson said. “We show them not only did we do that, we did it in 10 of our highest-volume stores over the holidays. They accept that. Thompson is currently working to introduce virtual machines in all of Target’s 1,755 stores. His aim is to reduce the number of physical servers in each store from seven to two.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215032/Server_Virtualization_6_Management_Myths
http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8349:microsoft-takes-next-step-in-virtualization&catid=142:the-daily-buzz