Updates from the virtual marketplace

April 26th, 2007

Quick items about virtualization adoption:

IDC: Server shipments slow on spread of virtualization: “the x86 server market revved slightly in Q4 2006, growing 7.0% in the quarter to $7.2 billion worldwide, its fastest in five quarters, but unit shipment growth continued to moderate with growth at 1.1% year over year to 1.85 million servers, as customers continued to consolidate their IT infrastructures, .. For the first time in more than 10 years, average selling values in the quarter increased year over year as IT managers move to consolidate IT workloads. This shift toward a shared compute infrastructure is driving additional scalability, memory attachment and I/O needs, which in turn, lead to higher average selling values.” So IDC believes that virtualization has spread enough to slow server purchase counts, while simultaneously increasing the CPU and RAM demanded from each server. Makes sense.

TechComparison - Linux Virtualization Wiki: Interesting comparison chart of virtualization technologies. Another chart from David Strom. Also: a story of a satisfied Xen user.

When to use VDI, when to use server-based computing, and how the Citrix Ardence desktop fits in: Long and thorough article comparing the different desktop models. Also profiles Ardence virtual disks, an “iSCSI-lite” for non-persistent disks that can be delivered for PXE boot as well as run time read.

Entry Filed under: News, Virtualization platforms