This isn't a situation where technology is being pushed through vendor hype. The ability to dramatically diminish server sprawl and its associated costs is so significant that organizations are demanding it -- not just for areas such as development, quality assurance and testing, but for full production as well.

As a storage guy, I must ask the question, Why hasn't storage virtualization taken off in the same way? The problems associated with server and storage management are remarkably similar: lots of devices to manage, poor resource utilization, and high consumption of data center power, cooling and floor space. So clearly the need exists.

For a technology to take hold, it must also:

-- Be conceptually easy to understand.

-- Demonstrate sufficient maturity and robustness to meet production standards.