Steve Brown's 'Network Observations' Blog

Overall, 51% of organizations use virtualization, and this should rise to 83% within two years. That's the result of a recent poll to gauge where IT professionals - fifty percent of the respondents were C-level or IT management - stood with emerging technologies.

On the first day of Interop, we at Network Management joined together with NetQoS to poll 117 Interop attendees and gauge where they stood with emerging technologies. Fifty percent of the respondents were C-level or IT management. The surprise with the polling wasn’t that  virtualization is popular, but rather the strong expected rate of adoption.

44% of respondents said that at least 20 percent of their applications run on virtual machines, while a sizable portion (40%) said they don’t have virtual machines. A small portion ran over half their applications on virtual machines.

The expected adoption rate of virtualization was much stronger than I expected. In two years the number of organizations without virtualization is projected to shrink from 40% to around 5%. The second area of growth came with the number of businesses running more than half of their applications on virtual machines. This number is expected to increase from 7% of organizations to nearly 40% by 2010.

Overall, 51% of organizations use virtualization, and this should rise to 83% within two years. I’d be curious to learn of other studies that project the virtualization adoption rate to understand how in line the results were.

Another question asked respondents to identify the emerging technology they think will be the greatest monitoring challenge. 38% of IT executives identified virtualization as the greatest monitoring challenge, followed by unified communications (24%) and MPLS (14%). In this case we didn’t delve into the “why” but it may point to an analysis need. For those involved in virtualization, it’d be great to hear feedback and thoughts on the numbers.

Virtualization Technology Providers and Contributors in 2008
The following companies are among the providers and contributors of Virtualization technology: 3Leaf Systems, 3PAR, 3Tera, Acronis, Actional, Active Endpoints, ActiveGrid, activePDF, ActiveServers, ActiveState, Actuate, Agile Software, Agilent, AGiLiENCE, Agilysys, Akamai, Akorri, AlachiSoft, Altova, AMD, AMDAHL, Amentra, Amyuni, anacubis, Apani, APC, Appcelerator, Appistry, AppStream, Ascential, Astaro, Attune Systems, Autodesk, AutoVirt, Availl, Azul Systems, BEA Systems, B-Hive, Black Duck Software, Black Hat, Blackbaud, Blue Lane Technologies, BlueArc, BlueNote, BluePhoenix Solutions, BMC Software, Borland, Bristol Technology, Brix Networks, BroadVision, Brocade, Burton Group, Business Objects, CA, CalAmp, Cassatt, Cast Iron, Catbird, Cayenne Technologies, Ceedo Technologies, Cenzic, Certeon, CiRBA, Cisco Systems, Citrix Systems, ClearApp, ClearCube Technology, Compass America, Composite Software, Compuware, Configuresoft, Continuity Software, Coraid, Courion, Coyote Point Systems, DataDirect, DataSynapse, Dell, Double-Take Software, Ecora Software, EDS, Egenera, Elastra Corporation, Embarcadero, EMC Corporation, Enomaly Open Source, Enterprise Management Associates, Entuity, EqualLogic, ESRI, F5 Networks, Fortisphere, Forum Systems, Fujitsu, GemStone, Getronics, GigaSpaces, Green Hills Software, Grid Dynamics, GridGain Systems, GT Software, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, Hyperic, IBM, ICEsoft, Illumita, ILOG, IMEX Research, Information Builders, InstallFree, Intel, International Computerware, iTKO LISA, JBoss, Juniper, Kidaro, LynuxWorks, ManageIQ, Managed Methods, Marathon Technologies, Mellanox, Microsoft, Mindreef, MKS, Moka5 (MokaFive), Motorola, MQSoftware, NASTEL, Ncomputing, NEC, NetApp, Netegrity, Neverfail, Nexaweb, NextAxiom, Nimbus, Novell, OpenSpan, OPNET Technologies, OpTier, Oracle, Panacea Software, Parallels, Pillar Data Systems, PlateSpin, PLX Technologies, Progress Software, Prolifics, Prosync Technology, Provision Networks, QLogic, Quest Software, Racemi, Raxco Software, Red Hat, Reflex Security, Resolutions Enterprises, Riverbed Technology, Rogue Wave, rPath, RSA Security, SanDisk, SAP, Saugatuck Technology, ScaleMP, Secure Command, ShavLik, ServInt Internet Services, Silpion IT Solutions, Skytap, Software AG, Splunk, StackSafe, Stoneware, StoreVault, StrikeIron, STT, WebOS, Sun Microsystems, Surgient, Sybase, Symantec, Tenfold, TheInfoPro, Thinstall, Third Brigade, TIBCO Software, Tideway Systems, TRANGO Virtual Processors, Transitive, Trend Micro, Trigence, Unisys, Verio, VeriSign, Virtual Iron, VirtualLogix, Vizioncore, VKernel, VMLogix, vmSight, VMware, Web Age Solutions, WSO2, XDS, Xiotech, xkoto, and Xsigo Systems.