Study: Manufacturers Taking Strategic Virtualization Tack

A new Vizioncore Virtualization Review (VVR) study shows that manufacturers are keeping pace with other industries by acknowledging that virtualization has moved beyond server consolidation to become a strategic tool that allows them to compete more effectively, lower costs and increase margins.

Of those surveyed, 44 percent were process manufacturers and 28 percent were discrete manufacturers. The study surveyed global manufacturers across multiple industries, and survey participants were asked to select the outcome of the top near-term priority for their virtualization initiative. In response, 41 percent listed preventing application downtime and data loss as their primary priorities, while 39 percent said their primary concerns were achieving efficiencies and reducing costs at their corporate headquarters.

These two top priorities were followed by achieving efficiencies/reducing costs at plant operations (12 percent), improving quality of products and ability to compete (6 percent), other (2 percent) and extend plant automation (1 percent).

Asked to list which area they have virtualized, an overwhelming 82 percent cited production, followed by other at 12 percent, R&D at 3 percent, customer service/help desk at 2 percent and labs/prototyping at 1 percent.

Not surprisingly, when respondents reported on their virtualization platform companies of choice, VMware was the runaway winner with a 99 percent response rate. Citrix XenServer was next (10 percent), followed by Microsoft Hyper-V Server (4 percent), other (2 percent), Oracle Virtual Iron and Linux KVM, which both registered 1 percent response rates.

Vizioncore summed up the survey results by saying, "The VVR results clearly indicate that virtualization technology has reached maturity within the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are moving beyond the basic benefits of adoption by now seeking to prevent downtime, gain efficiencies and reduce costs at the corporate level. Posing these questions just a couple of years ago would not yield the same results. Virtualization is now a solid investment for production and has matured along with the market--helping to cut costs and improve operations across many areas of business. The opportunities for 2010, as it seems now, abound."

Question: How long can VMware maintain its dominance in the manufacturing market?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 04/07/2010 at 12:48 PM