Revovery's new terminology"Virtualization": IT managers look beyond server consolidation
Virtualization helps enterprises collapse their data center footprint and thus reduce all of the costs that go along with it
Boston, Massachusetts-based Aberdeen Group has put out a research report titled “Are You Protected? Virtualization and Business Continuity,” which states that virtualization continues to be a key IT strategy to enable new ways to solve old problems in the enterprise. The technology has largely been adopted to date to help organizations with server consolidation. Virtualization has been instrumental in many enterprises by helping to collapse their data center footprint and thus reduce all of the costs that go along with it. Aberdeen has found that IT management is now looking beyond server consolidation and is starting to ask that virtualization help enable the enterprise to address the tough missions of business continuity, high availability, and disaster recovery.
Aberdeen’s latest report provides some insights and clarifications into the practices adopted by Best-in-Class companies that have begun to implement this next step in applying virtualization technology. The report shows that the adoption rate of virtualization is strong. Surveying nearly 300 respondents, the report found that 53 percent of respondents have deployed server virtualization, while another 24 percent plan to implement it within twelve months. At least 38 percent have deployed storage virtualization, with another 25 percent planning to adopt it within the next twelve months.
Once these companies adopt the technology, Aberdeen concludes that the next step for these adopters is to think about how to protect these virtualized environments. The reports says that “Virtualization is clearly helping customers to move their server and storage infrastructures into a more flexible environment which enables high availablity and disaster recovery. Furthermore, given that virtualization is emerging as a disruptive technology, companies must now take appropriate steps to ensure their newly virtualized environments are just as protected as their physcial environments.”
The report was underwritten by Neverfail, Pillar Data Systems, Sun Microsystems, SWsoft, and Xiotech.
MORE: Sun Microsystems has unveiled its virtualization platform, which consists of two pieces, one being the open, cross-platform Sun xVM Server, which will host Windows, Linux and Solaris guest operating systems. It will also include the xVM Ops Center, a tool that lets customers manage both their physical and virtual environments.
