Increased traction in markets already on the virtualisation bandwagon will raise revenues by 43 per cent in 2009, according to a recent Gartner report.
The report claims virtualisation software revenue will increase from $US1.9 billion in 2008 to $US2.7 billion this year worldwide, while penetration is expected to reach 20 per cent, up from 12 per cent.
“Banks, telcos – any large organisation with lots of servers and PCs, are the ones who have embraced the technology so far. In 2009 it’ll be more of the same, but virtualisation will be more widely deployed within those organisations,” Gartner managing vice president, Phillip Sargeant, said.
“We’ll also see the larger side of SMBs start to move into the space.”
The drivers behind the uptake of virtualisation would remain the same in 2009, with cost and environmental savings being most significant.
“Amongst the ‘old hands’ with the technology, the flexibility and agility that virtualisation can offer organisations will be a driver behind additional percentages of the organisation’s assets being virtualised,” Sargeant said.
“Inhibitors will be much the same as they had been before as well – software licensing regimes within virtualisation can still be difficult to bear, and the change in skills required of staff, or the need to bring on additional skills can still be an inhibitor.”
VMware A/NZ vice-president, Paul Harapin, said the Gartner report was in line with what the vendor was expecting from the year.
“Areas of growth will be in virtualisation of a client, and more detailed management of the infrastructure,” Harapin said.
“I think we’re pretty comprehensive across all verticals, but I expect the business will continue to grow in depth within those verticals.”