Server virtualization is in the news again as an industry analyst report is released and as a new virtualization technology made its way into the Linux kernel.

Server virtualization is transforming data center management by breaking the one-to-one relationship between applications and servers, an analyst group says.

"Server virtualization has become a key battleground among titans, as it breaks the interrelationship between operating system and hardware, leaving this critical interface up for grabs," said Rachel Chalmers, senior analyst at The 451 Group.

The 451 Group says that using virtualization can lower capital, energy and labor costs by consolidating workloads onto more efficient hardware. Over the next two years, the 451 Group says, ubiquitous virtualization will take over as server operating systems include virtualization as a standard feature. At this point, Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and Microsoft Windows incorporate virtualization technology. AMD and Intel also provide virtualization technology in their processors.

The 451 Group believes that significant merger and acquisition opportunity exists for companies designing virtualization tools. A $1.4 billion market will revolve around server virtualization itself, virtual machine management, data center automation and change and configuration management, process automation, dynamic server reprovisioning and application virtualization.

As evidence of M&A activity for virtualization, Citrix last week bought Ardence, an application virtualization company, whose software allows the provisioning of operating systems.

For incorporating virtualization into the operating system, Linux kernel gurus took one of the first steps – they accepted Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) into Version 2.6.20 of the Linux kernel.