Gartner Says 16 Per Cent of Workloads are Running in Virtual Machines Today
Analysts Examine the Growth in Server Virtualisation during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2009, 2-5 November, in Cannes
Orlando, Fla., October 22, 2009 — Although server virtualisation is not currently as widespread as many presume, the market is growing rapidly, according to Gartner, Inc. Only 16 per cent of workloads are running in virtual machines today, but Gartner predicts that this will rise to around 50 per cent of x86 architecture server workloads by the end of 2012, representing approximately 58 million deployed machines.
Gartner provided the latest outlook for the server virtualisation market during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which is taking place in Orlando through 22 October and in Cannes on 2-5 November. Gartner said server virtualisation technology enables multiple operating system (OS) instances to be deployed, operated and managed concurrently on a single physical server.
Gartner said that the fastest growing market for virtual machines is the small business sector.
“While large organisations were quick to leverage virtual machines to reduce server sprawl and power costs, as well as conserve data-centre space, small business started late on virtualisation,” said Tom Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, by year-end 2010, businesses with 100-999 employees will have a higher penetration of virtual machines deployed than the Global 500. For years the entry point was simply too high for small businesses, but increased competition by server vendors has enabled smaller firms to embrace virtualisation.”
Gartner advocates a ‘start small, think big’ approach to virtualised server deployments that begins with a specific project but builds towards a wider strategic plan that includes management and process changes.
“Starting small both reduces risk and provides for a learning curve while building the foundations for sustainable reductions in total cost of ownership (TCO) and improvements in service quality,” Mr Bittman said. “The other aspect, ‘thinking big’, means it’s important to proactively plan ahead for the major process and management changes virtualisation brings – not to mention how virtualisation is a path to cloud computing.”
Looking into the future at how server virtualisation will evolve, Mr Bittman said it was important to understand that virtualisation is not cloud computing, but it enables and forces the same changes required to effectively leverage cloud computing and as such, virtualisation leads inexorably to cloud computing.
“What many organisations fail to recognise about virtualisation is that the most important changes aren’t technological, they are cultural,” said Mr Bittman. “Virtualisation forces users to let go of the physical implementations of their services, and deal with their provider in terms of service levels and results. When a provider becomes a cloud-computing provider, users need to do a more complete job of describing their requirements in service terms.”

Si l’on en croit les derniers chiffres de Gartner  16 % des “workloads” (le couple constitué par un environnement système et la ou les applications qui tournent dessus) des entreprises fonctionneraient aujourd’hui au sein de machines virtuelles. Selon le cabinet d’analystes, cette proportion devrait passer à environ 50% en 2012. A cette date, Gartner estime que 58 millions de machines virtuelles seront en exploitation dans les entreprises. Le cabinet note que les grandes entreprises ont déjà largement adopté la virtualisation – elles n’ont d’ailleurs pas attendu VMware pour virtualiser leurs applications Unix et Mainframe – mais qu el’essentiel de la croissance à venir viendra des PME de 100 à 999 employés. D’ici la fin 2010, le taux de pénétration de la virtualisation dans ces entreprises devrait dépasser celui des 500 plus grandes entreprises mondiales.

La vraie question, celle à laquelle Gartner ne répond pas dans son communiqué, est de savoir quelle technologie ces entreprises utiliseront pour ce faire. Si VMware a su s’imposer comme le fournisseur par défaut des grandes entreprises. La partie est loin d’être jouée dans les PME. Certes VMware à lancé des versions limitées de vSphere pour ce marché. Mais il n’est pas sûr que cela suffise à contenir l’offensive de Microsoft avec Hyper-V et Windows Server 2008 R2. Dans les pays où l’adoption du libre est forte, les hyperviseurs KVM et Xen pourraient aussi avoir leur carte à jouer. Si Red Hat est en retard sur ce marché, Citrix propose en revanche une offre séduisante (et largement gratuite) avec XenServer et ses outils associés. Oracle pourrait aussi venir jouer les trouble fêtes dès le premier trimestre 2010 avec son hyperviseur Oracle VM 3.0 et son offre d’infrastructure intégrée. Une chose est certaine, les PME ne manqueront pas de choix. Reste à savoir si leur choix différera de celui effectué jusqu’alors par les grandes entreprises.

Autres articles intéressants :