Server virtualization: virtual machines to exceed physical systems in '09

Peter Dinham
Sunday, 17 May 2009 15:05

IT Industry - Market

Adoption of virtualization technology in the European market has been on the rise, with an increase of 26.6 percent of server systems shipped with a virtualization platform on top last year compared with 2007.

IDC says the adoption of virtualization in Europe has confirmed that the technology is significantly impacting the server market, and “even more so the way datacentres are and will be built and managed.”

According to IDC the number of server systems shipped with a virtualization platform reached 358,000 units in 2008 and, it says, "the accelerated adoption on the x86 side of the server market is making virtualization a crucial factor, changing the approach of suppliers and the deployment habits of customers throughout Europe." 

Giorgio Nebuloni, research analyst with IDC European systems and infrastructure solutions, says that in 2008, approximately 18.3% of all servers shipped in Western Europe were virtualized, against 14.6% in 2007, and he expected the percentage to grow to almost 21% in 2010.

“More importantly, last year, and for the first time ever, the number of virtual machine (VM) shipments exceeded the number of physical servers shipped, topping 2 million units."

Nebuloni says the drop in hardware spending will lead to a break point in 2009, as VM shipments will be more than 10% higher than physical server shipments.

“In 2013, the ratio between virtual and physical server shipments will be 3:2. In parallel, the number of logical machines (physical and virtual) shipped is expected to grow strongly,” says Nebuloni, and he projected shipments would increase by 15.7% through 2013.