Virtualization is transforming the datacenter, and the next wave of virtualization technology will benefit desktops and applications, according to The 451 Group, experts on innovative enterprise technologies and markets. The analysts say these improvements will lead to greater efficiency and power savings as this virtualization layer of software abstraction is added to the enterprise software infrastructure.

Today, enterprise IT administrators face tough challenges involving desktop management and application distribution. These problems involve running applications across incompatible operating systems, managing desktop sprawl, and ensuring efficient provisioning and secure execution of desktop applications. These problem sets can be addressed by adding another layer of 'indirection.'

"By allowing partitioning, emulation and aggregation at every layer of the software stack, virtualization is transforming enterprise IT from the datacenter server farm to the desktop PC, thin client or remote laptop at the enterprise edge," said Rachel Chalmers, Senior Analyst for Enterprise Software at The 451 Group and lead author of the report. "The trouble is that approaches for desktop and application virtualization differ, and many are complementary, leading to tremendous market confusion as to which companies and technologies are competing head-to-head and which are building on one another. With a judicious strategy, however, a typical savvy customer should be able to glean substantial cost savings by deploying the software discussed in this report."

The 451 Group identifies six categories of desktop and application virtualization technology:

• Application isolation
• Application streaming
• Desktop virtualization
• Virtual appliances
• Workspace virtualization (client-hosted)
• Workspace virtualization (server-hosted).

The market has already seen $1.5bn in M&A activity related to desktop and application virtualization over the past 24 months, and 451 analysts predict that there is more to come. "A validated emerging market is a venture capitalist's honey pot. The 20 privately held companies profiled in this report have collectively raised at least $200m in venture capital. Investors are pressing into this new market as part of their own urgent need for big wins and high returns," said Chalmers.

About this study

The 451 Group 110-page report, "Virtualization II: Desktops and applications are next", ventures beyond pure x86 server virtualization into even newer and more speculative markets. It examines the state of the art in desktop and application virtualization technology. It provides a taxonomy of approaches to desktop and application virtualization and offers a gap analysis of the market with a view to future M&A activity, looking at holes in the portfolios of likely acquirers and where privately held companies might fill those holes. It extends coverage of virtualization through earlier 451 Group reports.

The report includes in-depth competitive assessments of the following companies: Altiris, AppStream, BMC Software, CA Inc, Citrix Systems, CohesiveFT, DeviceVM, Dunes Technologies, Endeavors Technology, Enomaly, Exent Technologies, FastScale Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Innotek, Kidaro, LANDesk, LeoStream, Microsoft, Neocleus, Parallels, Provision Networks, Qumranet, rPath, Sentillion, Sun Microsystems, Thinstall, Trigence, VMware and Zeus Technology. Additional companies are covered in various sections of the report.

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