Cloud Computing: The Future of Virtualization

Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Penny Jones.

Cloud computing and virtualization go hand in hand. Virtualization is cloud’s foundation and cloud computing software – such as OpenStack, for example – “is just the bit that sits on top of the house to manage this”, as Rackspace’s VP of technology and product, Nigel Beighton, will tell you.

But as the Cloud evolves, so too must virtualization to support more IO-intensive network and storage workloads, and to ensure that open standards being developed across the industry can also be applied to hypervisor designs. Beighton says most clouds today run on virtualization technology that is ten years old. But work is taking place behind the scenes to revolutionize the way virtualization is done…

The market leader

VMware has the largest market share when it comes to virtualization – 60%, according to research firm IDC. VMware global field CTO Paul Strong says that today most adoption is being driven by consolidation and the desire for private and hybrid cloud environments. But market share does not mean VMware can rest on its laurels. New demands, such as the software-defined data center (SDDC), are pushing virtualization technology forward…

Read more from the source @ http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2013/10/future-virtualization