A recent report by IDC predicts the number of virtual machines to exceed physical systems in 2009.
The number of servers shipped in Europe with a virtualization platform increased by 26.5% in 2008 compared to 2007. IDC predict VM shipments to be 10% higher than physical servers in 2009, extending to a 3:2 ratio by 2013.
IDC also stated that the role of management tools are “more and more pivotal”, as physical and virtual servers need to be managed throughout their lifecycle.
The IDC press release can be found here.