Virtualization Dominates CIO Spending Increases
Which software companies deserve partner attention in 2010? Here’s a clue: Look at the virtualization market, where VMware, Red Hat and Citrix lead a list of software companies that will score more dollars from CIO budgets over the next 12 months, according to survey results from Goldman Sachs. Here’s the scoop.
Actually, The VAR Guy has to credit Matt Asay’s blog (The Open Road) for offering an extensive look at the survey results.
Now, here’s The VAR Guy’s analysis. CIOs were asked “Which software providers are gaining or losing share of your IT spending dollars?” The top 10 gainers according to Goldman Sachs were…
- VMware
- Citrix
- Red Hat
- SAP
- CommVault
- Salesforce.com
- SolarWinds
- Cisco’s software
- Adobe
- Oracle
Some quick observations:
- Virtualization: The top 3 companies on that list — VMware, Citrix and Red Hat (to some extent) — all specialize in virtualization. Sure, Red Hat’s hottest play right now is JBoss middleware. But channel partners better keep an eye on Red Hat’s accelerating virtualization efforts. Red Hat recently polished its partner program to include a virtualization specialty. Plus, VARs should expect to see new virtualization opportunities on small business servers.
- Missing in Action: Despite Windows 7’s anticipated Oct. 22 debut, Microsoft is noticeably absent from the top 10 list above.
- Cisco: Finaly a software company. More on that later.
- The Biggest Losers: CA, TIBCO and BMC Software were listed as the top 3 companies that would lose CIO spending dollars.
Clearly, the virtualization market continues to accelerate. The VAR Guy wonders: Are VARs keeping pace?
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