If virtualization unsettled the IT infrastructure practices by introducing something radically new, now is its own turn to face the same scenario. So quickly does technology change that even before virtualization has gained widespread adoption, there are groundbreaking advances being made in the development of hypervisors. As things stand today, certain interesting trends can be pointed out to understand what the future of hypervisors could be.
- Open-source vs. propriety: One clear distinction emerging in the market is the availability of both open source and propriety hypervisors. The open source movement, as usual, is characterized by rapid technological advances and clever breakthroughs, unsettling the trends even before they are firmly in place.
- Pace of technological change: While open source is of course a brilliant ground for innovation, certain experts say that businesses are not ready to adopt changing technologies so fast. They want stability and support , which is why they are ready to pay to open source vendors and consulting companies.
- Client-side vs. server-side: Hypervisors are also available as both client-side and server-side, adding to the complexity of decision making. While in general server-side hypervisors provide a more seamless experience and keep things easy for the IT department, client-side hypervisors clearly win in terms of application performance and offline availability.
It seems the times to come will have nothing but turbulence as more and more big-name companies develop their own hypervisors in trying to push out the established ones. In all of this, desktop virtualization and client-side virtualization emerge as having the strongest potential for the future.
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