Following the conclusion of VMworld 2006 in Los Angeles, virtualization solution providers Entisys Solutions, Foedus, Solutions II, Govplace and The Pinnacle Group announced that "Total Enterprise Virtualization" -- the combination of virtualization solutions into comprehensive, enterprise-wide, virtual infrastructures, comprising desktops, servers and storage -- will drive the next phase of infrastructure virtualization.

"We see the adoption of Total Enterprise Virtualization quickly becoming the only viable way for companies large and small to gain maximum value from their desktop, server, and storage systems," stated Aaron Schneider, director of Services at The Pinnacle Group. "By virtualizing the total infrastructure versus one element or another, the benefits become exponential."

Total Enterprise Virtualization has been made possible, primarily, by the strong adoption of VMware server virtualization and the maturity and affordability of new virtual SAN software solutions like DataCore's SANmelody. In addition, an ecosystem of virtualization-complementary products and services has developed. The emergence of additional, major entrants into the server virtualization market, such as Microsoft, Virtual Iron and XenSource, is a testament to the tangible business benefits that virtualization affords -- chiefly, consolidation, flexibility and hardware independence, among others.

"We now have the products and services expertise to design and implement Total Enterprise Virtualization solutions," said Mike Strohl, president, Entisys Solutions, a VMware Authorized Consultant and DataCore partner. "VMware server virtualization opened the broader market to understanding that virtualization can liberate IT resources and services from the confines and limitations of physical devices, enabling them to be used more easily and efficiently. Once that is understood, it really doesn't make sense to stop with servers, now that products such as DataCore SANmelody are available."

According to Sean Burke, president, Govplace, "Storage virtualization is the perfect complement to server consolidation. Without it, the freedom and flexibility derived from server virtualization is quickly attenuated when it runs into the physical limitations of storage. Storage virtualization picks up where server virtualization leaves off, extending those benefits across the entire infrastructure of an enterprise."

David Stone, vice-president of business development, Solutions-II, a VMware and DataCore partner, has also seen the benefits Total Enterprise Virtualization delivers to his customers. "Fundamentally, server virtualization combined with storage virtualization qualitatively changes, for the better, an organization's productivity and maximizes the use of its IT resources and services," said Stone.

When recently asked to comment on DataCore's growth and momentum in a channel predominantly focused over the last several years on VMware sales, George Teixeira, president and CEO of DataCore Software, responded, "The 'Server Virtualization Plus Storage Virtualization' message we've been advocating has been affirmed by our partners and their success with our solutions. These are very successful VMware partners who have built strong and capable consultancy practices and virtualization expertise. To these partners, our affordable, SANmelody software has become the SAN solution of choice, making it possible for them to reach a broader market for server consolidation opportunities and to accelerate the sales cycles of, those deals."

Mike Reilly, president and CEO of Foedus, concluded, "Until recently, the broader market wasn't ready to absorb the practical sense of Total Enterprise Virtualization. We are just emerging from the period of initial buy-in to the server consolidation revolution in which the astounding benefits of virtualization were revealed to the market. In addition, for many, storage virtualization had remained an expensive, high-end, data center solution, until DataCore made it practical for all implementations with its SANmelody virtual SAN solutions."