Last month, Nemertes Research conducted a webinar that explored the driving forces behind and some of the implications of server virtualization. To me, the most interesting finding of the project was what drives the initiation of virtualization projects for enterprises. What they found was that the most compelling motivation was not cost savings, or even scalability, but Space, Cooling and Power Reduction. As you can see in the graph, twice the number of responses focused on those aspects as on direct cost savings.
This tells me that business leaders are using virualization as their strategy to deal with finite physical resources, such as floor space, HVAC capacity, and electrical service. Of course, the latter two are relatively easy to accommodate, but they almost always incur significant capital outlays. This could also mean that CIOs have somewhat modest expectations for cost savings through virtualization, but that the effects of a reduced hardware footprint are easy to understand, explain and justify.
This also tells me that virtualization initiatives will level off in 2009, but will become critically important once economic conditions improve and businesses look for inexpensive ways to enable growth.
View the Nemertes Research webinar (link requires registration): The Agile, Sustainable Enterprise: Server and Desktop Virtualization
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