Of the total IT installed base in the country, only 5 to 10% have been virtualized so far. AMI has concluded that the SMB segment accounts for about 30% of the Indian virtualization market and is likely to grow exponentially in the next few years.
IT and IT enabled services have been early adopters of virtualization, followed by the pharmaceutical, telecommunication and banking/financial services and insurance verticals. In the past server virtualization was the more readily adopted technology among Indian SMBs. However, desktop virtualization has gained popularity in 2011 due to its operational advantages. Large enterprises have also embraced this solution because there is a need to move mission-critical applications to virtualization.
Inhibitors dampening virtualization adoption rates are the mindset of end users and their aversion to take on new technology. “Due to a lack of technical expertise and limited initiatives by vendors/system integrators to increase awareness, Indian SMBs tend to stall or postpone their plans to virtualize,” said Shweta Baidya, Bangalore-based senior research analyst at AMI India.
According to leading vendors, the Indian virtualization market can be segmented into three distinct phases:
- Phase 1 – The end users opt for basic consolidation in order to reduce their capital expenditure. They try to move some non-critical applications onto the virtualized servers
- Phase 2 – The end users try to virtualize their mission critical or core applications and the entire process is automated
- Phase 3 – The end users are empowered to focus on self service which in turn improves scalability and performance
According to Baidya, “Large enterprises in India are considered to be Phase 2 participants. The majority of SMBs are Phase 1 players with some of these companies striving to become Phase 2 adopters. Many in the SMB segment are piloting the concept.”