An updated IDC forecast made clear that x86-based server deployment patterns were changing dramatically. The research group says multicore and virtualisation technologies would cost the x86 market more than 4.5 million shipments and $2.6 billion in customer spending between 2006-2010.
Previous IDC projects had the x86 server market increasing by 61 per cent by 2010. That growth is now expected to top out at 39 per cent.
“The server market is at a crossroads, and customer buying behaviour is increasingly driven by the strategic business benefit of the IT investment rather than a singular focus on cost containment,” IDC Enterprise Platforms Group vice president Matt Eastwood said.
“In today's business environment, it is clear that technologies such as virtualization and multicore are particularly important enablers for the consolidated IT infrastructure organisations are increasingly seeking to deploy.”
IDC says the two technologies combine well. Virtualisation technology has the ability of organisations to exploit the benefits of multicore technology – which in turn accelerates the ability for organisations to consolidate data centre infrastructure.
“Unlike other previous multicore introductions that took time to become mainstream as customers changed their application code, virtualisation allows customers to fully exploit the improvements in x86 processors immediately, accelerating business benefits and thereby increasing adoption rates,” IDC research vice-president Michelle Bailey said.
Looking forward, IDC believes the server and component vendors will optimise around quad-core technology before moving ahead to octi-core technology.
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