As the adoption of virtualization software continues to remake customer environments and businesses as well as alter customer buying preferences, hardware needs, and key partners, IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker provides clients with the detailed information necessary for navigating this evolving landscape. IDC's Tracker products provide reliable, accurate, and independent market data that serves as a foundation for creating quantitative market analyses and studying historical trends. IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker consists of independent, unbiased data, updated quarterly.

This product covers the server virtualization market. Specifically, the tool is designed to provide quantitative measure of the adoption of virtualization software by end users. Relevant measures include virtualization software and hardware vendor shares as well as server shares for both units and revenue across a variety of segments detailed below.

• Regions: United States, Canada, Latin America, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), and Japan
• CPU market shares: x86 (AMD, Intel), RISC, EPIC, CISC
• x86 server socket capability: 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-way+
• x86 server form factors: Blade, rack, non-rack optimized
• Virtualization software vendors and products: VMware Server, ESX, Parallels, XenSource Enterprise, Virtual Iron, Microsoft VS, Hyper-V, Sun, IBM, HP, other
• x86 server and virtualization software shipments and revenue
• Server vendors: Dell, HP, IBM, Sun, other
• Primary operating systems: Windows, Linux, Unix, z/OS, other

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

1. How quickly is server virtualization being adopted?
2. Which virtualization software vendors are gaining or losing share, and across what regions?
3. In which geographical regions is virtualization being adopted the fastest?
4. What systems are customers most often using?
5. Which server vendors are gaining or losing market share?
6. Which operating systems are being virtualized the most?

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker is an essential tool for vendors engaged in the virtualization marketplace. This product is updated quarterly, providing clients with the latest information for ongoing business planning activities. Built on the foundation of IDC's worldwide network of experienced market analysts, this research uses both top-down and bottom-up methodologies to match operational market knowledge with global company financial modeling.

Specific companies tracked include AMD, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Parallels, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Virtual Iron, VMware, and XenSource.

Throughout the year, this product will offer insight into the latest trends impacting the market. Deliverables include:

• Quarterly data files are delivered nine weeks after the end of each calendar quarter.
• With the purchase of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker, clients receive trend explanations and detailed insights, one day of onsite training at any location in the United States, and inquiry time for supporting questions regarding data usage.
• Written analyses, trend explanations, and insights are further provided in research from IDC's Enterprise Servers: Technology Markets and Datacenter Trends and Strategies continuous intelligence services (CISs).