New EMA IT Virtualization Research Outlines Trends, Challenges and Market Leaders

New EMA IT Virtualization Research Outlines Trends, Challenges and Market
Leaders
As the deployment of virtualization management increases, so do the problems
that come along with it

BOULDER, Colo., April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise Management Associates
(EMA) (http://www.enterprisemanagement.com), a leading IT management research
and consulting firm, today announced the release of its latest research report
titled, "Virtualization and Management: Trends, Forecasts and
Recommendations." EMA and its research director Andi Mann continue to lead the
IT industry in identifying trends, adoption patterns and pervasive marketing
hype around one of 2008's hottest technology stories.
"The promise of IT virtualization continues to be significant as it
rightfully gains traction across servers, desktops, applications, networks,
storage and more," said Mann. "This latest research report identifies what is
really happening within the exploding virtualization marketplace, the impact
it is having on IT professionals and the technology options that are available
today."
When looking across all virtualization technologies, Enterprise Management
Associates' research shows that VMware still has the highest overall market
penetration. However, Microsoft continues to grow its market share and -- even
before the formal release of Hyper-V -- is within 10 percent of VMware's lead.
Citrix also poses a threat, coming in at 20 percent behind VMware, again with
major product yet to be formally released.
Mann believes desktop virtualization will show the strongest growth of any
virtualization technology during the next one to two years. However, the
overall virtualization market will continue to be very healthy because, as
this research reveals, enterprises are seeing substantial benefits in cost
reduction, server consolidation, security improvement and more from
virtualization technologies. The EMA study also clearly shows that
virtualization is not just a test and development tool, finding that up to 75
percent of all enterprises are now using virtualization for production use
cases -- indicating a steady increase in outcomes and confidence since 2006.
As virtualization proliferates, it will continue to deliver many valuable
outcomes. However, most companies will face multiple barriers to success.
Enterprise Management Associates' research shows that the largest challenges
facing successful virtualization deployments lie with "human issues." Key
among these are the unique political challenges that virtualization creates as
a result of sharing data center resources, shifting responsibility and
functionality of desktops or changing the way departments access applications,
storage and networks.
In addition, companies face a potential skills crisis as they find it
harder to attract and retain virtualization resources. In fact, enterprises
have seen a 25 percent decrease in their ability to manage virtual
environments adequately with the skills they have in place.
Complexity is also a critical issue in virtualization. EMA finds that the
vast majority of organizations implement virtualization on multiple platforms,
using multiple technologies, from multiple vendors -- adding multiple layers
of complexity onto already complex physical systems. This study also shows
convincingly that virtualization will not overtake existing architectures at
least through 2010. "For the vast majority of enterprises, virtualization will
coexist with physical deployments for the foreseeable future, so complexity
will continue to be a major headache," said Mann.
As a result, more and more companies are realizing the difficulties of
virtualization management. Every discipline associated with virtualization
management was rated harder to use in 2008 than it was in 2006. Unfortunately,
the research shows that tools for virtualization management are lagging behind
market needs. In general, the tools available today do not manage well across
the multiple complexities of platforms, technologies and vendors. The tools
also do not integrate easily with the rest of the existing IT management
functions, nor do they align well with current IT services business
objectives.
All of these issues result in significant difficulties for enterprises
deploying and managing virtualization. This in turn feeds a disturbing trend
for virtualization to become over-hyped and EMA finds that, in some important
areas, virtualization is starting to underachieve on key expectations.
"The key to success is to approach virtualization as a strategy, not just
a series of projects, and to approach it with more realistic expectations,"
said Mann, "Companies need to adjust their goals, and find ways to deploy and
manage virtualization in more effective ways. This report will help them to do
exactly that."
The new EMA(TM) Research Report "Virtualization and Management: Trends,
Forecasts and Recommendations" is available now. Download a free research
abstract at
http://www.emausa.com/ema_collateral/EMA_Virtualization-Mgmt08_RR-abstract.pdf
or contact EMA at 303.543.9500 or sales@enterprisemanagement.com to purchase
the full report.
To find out more about the latest EMA IT virtualization research and what
Andi Mann recommends enterprises need to do to succeed with this emerging
technology, please attend a free webinar titled "Virtualization and
Management: New Research and Highlights" to be held on Thurs., May 15, 2008 at
2 p.m. EDT. Register for the webinar at:
http://www.emausa.com/ema_lead.php?ls=virtwebpr0508&bs=virtweb0508
As part of its ongoing coverage of the virtualization market, EMA is in
the process of updating in-depth profiles of more than 40 leading
virtualization products in its Virtualization Solutions Center. IT
professionals can register for free access to this online resource at:
http://itsolutions.emausa.com
NOTE TO EDITORS
For more information or to speak with Andi Mann please contact Guy Murrel
at gmurrel@catapultpr-ir.com at 303-581-7760 x17.
About Enterprise Management Associates
Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a leading
industry analyst and consulting firm dedicated to the IT management market.
The firm provides IT vendors and enterprise IT professionals with objective
insight into the real-world business value of long-established and emerging
technologies, ranging from security, storage and IT Service Management (ITSM)
to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), virtualization and service-
oriented architecture (SOA). Even with its rapid growth, EMA has never lost
sight of the client, and continues to offer personalized support and
convenient access to its analysts. For more information on the firm's
extensive library of IT management research, free online IT Management
Solutions Center and IT consulting offerings, visit
http://www.enterprisemanagement.com.
SOURCE Enterprise Management Associates

Guy Murrel, +1-303-581-7760, ext. 17, gmurrel@catapultpr-ir.com, for
Enterprise Management Associates