Growing business demands and changing consumer thinking patterns have brought about a rapid transformation in the market.
In that process, Information Technology (IT) is one industry that has been putting in efforts to meet the ever-growing customer demands. The key IT process that has brought about a rapid change in how firms operate is Virtualization.
Addressing hardware and herculean infrastructure challenges of the firms, the concept of Virtualization made major strides over the years and has revolutionized the management and execution of labor-intensive tasks through virtual methodology.
Virtualization, by definition, refers to the process of creating a virtual version of software components and processes, which can include an operating system, a server, network resources, and storage devices.
More of An Art!
The art of virtualization lies in simulating or emulating the functioning of an object or process in a virtual form or software that is identical to the corresponding real-time object.
In virtualization, software or applications behave like the actual hardware while maintaining the actual hardware-associated features, reliability, flexibility, scalability, cost, and overall capability and performance across a wide variety of applications.
Why Virtualization?
Traditional IT processes relied on expensive and oversubscribed hardware requirements, such as mainframes, to complete the job, thus setting the stage for virtualization.
However, with the changing trends, hardware has become cheaper and cost-effective, thus driving the industry’s focus on application-based services that can run on virtualized environments.
The net result of this transformation resulted in the concept of Virtualization!
In addition, a paradigm shift in the industry’s focus from computers and computing towards ensuring information availability led to the evolution of mobile and wireless systems, promoting the demand for Virtualization services.
Cloud Computing, Data Centers and Automation show a promising future for the global virtualization market
Virtualization Explained
Depending on the requirement, Virtualization consulting services can be categorized into various types, including Server Virtualization, Application Virtualization, Hardware Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Network Virtualization, and Operating System Virtualization.
Virtualization is seen as a software and hardware engineering collaboration that creates Virtual Machines (VMs).
While a single Operating System (OS) utilizes all the hardware resources in the absence of VMs, multiple OSs (each running on an individual virtual machine) share hardware resources in the case of VMs.
Meanwhile, virtualization technology allows multiple OSs to run a single physical platform.
Virtualization and Cloud – A Combo That is Most Sought
The concept of virtualization received wider attention with the advent of cloud computing.
As companies considered virtualizing their IT processes into cloud-based services, Virtualization appeared to them as a new operating model with an economic advantage and an alternative to age-old practices.
Virtualization coupled with cloud computing ensures effective resource utilization and reduced expenditure by allowing multiple applications and operating systems on the same server. Virtualization services hold a large potential for deployment across various sectors globally.
Following are some of the key trends and forecasts related to the global virtualization market and its business:
Network Virtualization in Telecom
Network Virtualization in TelecomSoftware-defined Networking (SDN) and Network Virtualization offer various benefits to the telecommunication sector, and the significance of these benefits has led to the emergence of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
The NFV concept aims to virtualize and effectively join service provider network elements onto multi-tenant, industry-standard servers, switches, and storage.
Owing to the advantages associated with NFV, telecom service providers have made numerous investments in NFV services.
A leading market research firm predicts that service provider SDN and NFV investments will grow at a CAGR of approximately 45% during the 2017-20 period, accounting for around USD 22 billion in revenue by 2020.
Virtualization in Industrial Automation
Another major factor is the utilization of virtualization services among industrial automation systems, which indicates a higher forecast for their adoption.
With industrial automation on pace, various industrial automation suppliers are looking at adding new-generation products that allow the virtualization of industrial automation processes and make them software-driven.
According to them, this would address the challenges pertaining to critical automation equipment like Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Distributed Control Systems (DCS), resulting in the advent of more virtualization products and services in industrial automation processes.
Full-fledge virtualization of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) is being looked at as an option to achieve lower investment costs, longer ICS life, less disruptive changes, and enhanced ability for continuous improvement.
Data Virtualization Across Sectors
Data Virtualization Across SectorsPlanning and implementing business strategies require large volumes of data, which can help gain business insights and enhance the decision-making process.
The IT service that appears to solve this problem is Data Virtualization.
Data generation is a major driving factor, and the data virtualization market is expected to grow from USD 1.58 billion in 2017 to USD 4.12 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 21.1% over the forecast period.
Region-wise, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the highest CAGR in the data virtualization market, driven by the rapid growth of domestic enterprises, massive rise in data generation across the industry verticals, and enhanced infrastructure development.
North America is expected to lead the way in terms of market size, driven by the rise in demand for industrial automation and data virtualization solutions, increased focus on reducing infrastructure expenditure, and a growing need for business insights and real-time data availability.
Data Center Virtualization Market
The need to enhance business agility, cut down IT operational costs, and provide unified and centralized data center management are expected to boost the demand for the data center virtualization market in the future.
The data center virtualization market is expected to grow from USD 3.75 billion in 2017 to USD 8.06 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 16.5% from 2017 to 2022.
Desktop Virtualization
Desktop VirtualizationAccording to industry estimates, the desktop virtualization market will likely grow rapidly over the coming five years at a CAGR of 54.59%.
Country-wise, North America is expected to lead the market with a 65% share, followed by Europe (18%) and Asia-Pacific (10%).
The Financial Services sector is expected to lead the market sector-wise, with an estimated share of 31%, followed by Healthcare (12%) and Government (9%).
Mobile Virtualization
Mobile VirtualizationThe growing mobile revolution and increasing application development have increased mobile virtualization adoption.
Mobile virtualization technology allows users to have multiple apps at minimal cost, and security is one aspect driving the adoption of mobile virtualization services.
Mobile virtualization technology secures critical data from cyberattacks by addressing security concerns associated with mobile operating systems (OS). The concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is among other key drivers for the global mobile virtualization market.
- The region-wise trend shows North America as the leading market for mobile virtualization services, driven by increased adoption of virtualized technologies and a willingness to adopt a BYOD approach.
- The European mobile virtualization market is driven by the increasing demand for personal devices and cyber-security solutions that do not require hardware maintenance.
- Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to see the highest growth in the future, buoyed by the adoption of managed security services, high-speed network connections, and NFV.
Virtualization Security
Virtualization SecurityThe global virtualization security market holds a positive trend across the globe.
Region-wise, North America is leading the global virtualization security market, buoyed by the growing demand for security solutions among American firms, the rising cloud computing market, and increasing technology advancements.
North America’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks and the resultant need for high-end security solutions are also prime reasons behind the demand for virtualization security services in the region.
Europe stands second after North America in the global virtualization security market owing to the region’s high-level IT and automotive industry and growing cyber threats.
Asia-Pacific is another region with strong potential for the virtualization security market, owing to the industrial development in China, India, and Japan.
Other Key Forecasts:
- As the leading Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies move on for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), consolidation is expected to be one of the prominent trends in the global virtualization business.
- Companies’ willingness to reduce budgets, decrease dependency on IT hardware, and optimize resource utilization is expected to boost the demand for Server Virtualization technologies worldwide.
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