Forrester

Why Read This Report

Every major category of IT infrastructure has been endowed with some virtualization capability. Although virtualization can make your IT environment more cost-effective and agile, the underlying technologies have matured at different rates. Furthermore, not every form of virtualization will deliver the business value you have experienced with more mature forms like server virtualization. To simplify planning for infrastructure and operations professionals, Forrester has analyzed the main infrastructure virtualization technologies' maturity and potential. We found that server and client virtualization technologies are poised to greatly improve your infrastructure in the near term, while today's storage virtualization will deliver a much lower level of business value. Network virtualization of bandwidth and connectivity has played an important — but invisible — role behind the scenes of your infrastructure, but networks haven't stood still: Newer incarnations like virtualized network security services are quickly becoming commonplace.