VMware

Storage vMotion is often derided as an unnecessary feature you'll never need -- don't believe that for a second

Our round-up of intriguing new products from VMware, Proofpoint, Infoblox among others.

Third-party virtualization companies appear to be taking advantage of what are traditionally slow news weeks in the technology business by rushing out a host of products designed to make virtualization infrastructures more manageable, cheaper, and easier to squeeze into previously unappreciated corners of the IT world.

When your IT staff numbers only five people, an opportunity to reduce costs and make it easier to manage your desktop infrastructure is nothing to scoff at. That's the conclusion Trent Ratcliff of the Regional Transportation District in the Denver area came to when reviewing the potential of thin clients and desktop virtualization.

Falcon School District 49 near Colorado Springs, Colo. had its entire data center fried by a Christmas-time blizzard in 2006 that covered the site's air conditioning compressors under a snow drift. The result was an internal data center temperature of 130 degrees that baked for 12 hours, and an insurance check that provided the needed funds for a virtualization project.

Despite declining IT operating budgets, virtualization adoption will dramatically accelerate and continue to top the priority list CIOs in 2009, says VMware Inc.'s Canadian country manager Grant Aitken. But despite the virtualization giant's rosy forecast, industry observers remain much more cautious.

Today's rough economy hasn't put the breaks on vendor ambition. Here's a look at what you can expect this year from Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper Networks, Avaya, and other key IT vendors, including their most pressing 2009 priorities and potential stumbling blocks.