Today's guest post is from AMD's Tim Meuting as part of AMD's Virtualization Ecosystem Month.
I have recently returned from an exciting and eventful VMworld Europe in Cannes,
France. I’d like to take a moment and thank VMWare for allowing me to share the
details of my experience with its audience. I learned quite a bit about the
direction of virtualization and had the privilege to speak to a number of
customers about their views on the technology—here’s a quick recap of what I
saw and heard:
Despite all the interesting news and buzz coming out of
the show, my favorite part of the event was interacting with AMD customers as
well as other virtualization
end-users to get their perspective on how they are using virtualization and how
the technology is helping their businesses. According to many of the customers
I spoke with, while client virtualization is still in its infancy the majority
of folks absolutely see the value of the technology. While some have not yet
entered into the market, they’re busy gathering information and knowledge to
begin.
I was also pleased to learn that customers were eager to hear news
about the latest technology from AMD and they are very excited about the enhanced 45nm
Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor (codename “Shanghai”) Many had
already seen the news announcing the demonstration of the six-core AMD Opteron processor (codename
“Istanbul”) and, from what I can gather, are anxiously awaiting its
availability.
Aside from excitement about new AMD products, a key trend from my
conversations with customers and partners was, when it comes to performance and
energy efficiency in the data center, users see the value in a balanced approach. Meaning, these
customers are no longer looking for the fastest technology on the market but
rather they want a solution that offers reliable and stable performance while
also cutting operating costs. I really think virtualization is a big part of
this change in mindset which of course, is very exciting evolution. Although performance is still
important, it is not the only metric customers use to evaluate products. Energy efficiency, stable
platforms, upgradability and scalability are critical factors that are now
being considered in the buying decision—a reflection of today’s economic and
environmental realities.
Having the opportunity to attend VMworld in Las Vegas last Fall and
then VMworld Europe last week one thing is clear: virtualization is truly a
game-changing technology and VMworld has truly become an industry-wide show.
Opening it up to the readers out there, what are your thoughts on the direction of
virtualization? How do you believe it will change customer’s server
buying decisions? Oh, and if you attended or followed the news from VMworld
Europe, what did you think of the show? Were you hearing the same feedback?
Tim Meuting is a Product Marketing
Manager at Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own
opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links
to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated,
AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement
is implied.
