As enterprises become more involved in virtualizing their application servers, they are finding that virtualization can deliver more than just better utilization of their computing resources. High availability and near-term server failover, previously the province of clustered servers, are now available in virtualization applications for less money and less hassle than had been the case with pure-play clustering applications. As IT shops gain expertise in virtualized applications, they can also get a better handle on load balancing and availability—once the domain of clustering solutions.

You can read more at Baseline Magazine here.

What a difference a year makes with the whirlwind of the server virtualization world. New cross-platform management tools, embedded hypervisors, wider acceptance of open source methods, protocols, and standards, and simplified pricing has all made virtualization much more popular for IT managers.

In my story this week for Datamation.com, I provide an update on what Microsoft, Citrix, and VMware are doing with their virtual server products.