IDC charts rise of virtual machines

In 2013, IDC expects the ratio between virtual and physical server shipments in Europe to be 3:2

Last year, for the first time, the number of virtual machine shipments exceeded the shipments of physical servers, according to a study by market watcher IDC.

Investigating the adoption of virtualisation in Europe, the research revealed that the number of server systems shipped with a virtualisation platform on top has increased by 26.5 per cent in 2008 compared to 2007, reaching 358,000 units in Western European countries.

The number of virtual machine shipments exceeded the number of physical servers shipped, topping two million units. In 2013, IDC expects the ratio between virtual and physical server shipments to be 3:2.

In addition, the number of both physical and virtual machines shipped is expected to grow. IDC projects they will increase by 15.7 per cent through 2013, which will make management tools more pivotal as both virtual and physical servers have to be operated, monitored, and patched.

Giorgio Nebuloni, research analyst at IDC European Systems and Infrastructure Solutions, said: “The accelerated adoption on the x86 side of the server market is making virtualisation a crucial factor, changing the approach of suppliers and the deployment habits of customers throughout Europe.”

Nebuloni said in 2008, about 18.3 per cent of all servers shipped in Western Europe were virtualised, compared with 14.6 per cent in 2007.

IDC expects the percentage to grow to almost 21 per cent in 2010.

Nathaniel Martinez, programme director for European Enterprise Servers at IDC, said: “We believe the current economic crisis to be increasingly intertwined with virtualisation adoption, as the combined need to squeeze costs with the existing assets and the weak demand for new hardware are accelerating its technological impact within customer-installed bases.”

Laurent Dedenis, executive vice president, EMEA at storage vendor Acronis, said although the research is encouraging, he would like to sound a note of ca ution to those businesses that are contemplating the move.

He said: “Many IT managers place most of their focus on picking the right
virtualisation platform and do not spend enough time considering how they will protect their data and perform backups in a virtual environment once the project is complete. Like in a physical environment, developing a disaster recovery plan should be the first thing that IT administrators address when deploying a server.”

Dedenis said businesses should bear in mind that virtual servers are subject to the same variety of loss scenarios as their traditional physical counterparts as well as an array of additional ones that arise from the nature of the virtualisation technology itself.

“In addition, it is worth considering a solution that enables users to move data in, out and between virtual and physical environments, giving IT administrators, who could feel they are going out on a limb when moving to a virtual environment, more peace of mind, control and confidence in the new technology,” he said.

Andy Hardy, managing director international sales at storage firm Compellent, agreed with the research, saying: “Storage virtualisation is the perfect complement to any leading virtual server platform, enabling companies to amplify the benefits of server virtualisation from the datacentre to the desktop.

“Removing the limits of physical drivers and aggregating them into logical virtual volumes helps companies significantly lower storage infrastructure costs and reduce energy expenditures.”