When Avnet released disappointing earnings today, the distributor blamed weak server sales in the US and Europe. But don’t blame Avnet, and don’t blame the economy. Instead, The VAR Guy thinks virtualization is to blame. Here’s why.
Each time The VAR Guy speaks with a CIO or solutions provider, he hears about yet another server consolidation project. Through virtualization and more effective storage management, companies can simplify their data centers while raising server utilization rates.
In a typical project, solutions providers like BlueWater Communications Group have consolidated customer data centers from 250 servers down to 70 servers. Those remaining servers are far better optimized and virtualized, and typically run a range of applications across Linux and Windows.
Another potential reason for the server spending slowdown: Microsoft just shipped Windows Server 2008. Many companies are now at an inflection point, as they evaluate Microsoft’s latest server wares but also continue to swim deeper into the Linux waters.
Either way, The VAR Guy doesn’t think the economy is destroying server sales. Rather, businesses are becoming far more efficient at leveraging the servers they already have.
Tags: Avnet | Bluewater Communications Group | Server Sales | Virtualization
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Great post Var Guy,
It is interesting that you mention the role out of 2008. I have been following Microsoft’s transition from a graphics heavy operating system to the lighter “core” option. After some initial testing I was disappointed with the final product, but I did think it was a step in the right direction. They finally figured out what Linux community has always known a server doesn’t need a gui, it needs a guru controlling it. When the next server line ships I think we will see a even more friendly lights out server platform from Microsoft to run in the virtualization infrastructure.
Just my thoughts,
Bradford Knowlton
http://x86Virtualization.com
Virtualization won’t hurt server sales for these reasons:
- Some servers are not virtualizable, so replacement is the ony option
- Servers are constantly going to end of life. Old neturally gets replaced with new
- The best virtualized environments require rationalized storage, and usually iSCSI networking. Many IT infrastructures don’t have the right kind of backend.
- Reducing the number of servers today will work only until the capacity exceeds todays needs, but once that ends new servers are needed.
Just one person’s opinion.