I’m attending a private IBM analyst event up in Somers, NY. I thought you’d like a summary of the discussion I’ve been hearing.
Virtualization — Helene Armitage

Helene Armitage spent a while laying out the agenda and made a few interesting comments about what IBM is trying to do.

* IBM is focused on expanding its messaging about virtualization. Since the company offers a complete portfolio virtualization products, the company is going to speak more about end-to-end virtualization rather than just speaking about virtual servers.
* IBM intends to speak about storage virtualization more and how important it is in a virtualized environment.
* IBM sees server virtualization as a stepping stone to a cloud computing environment and will start speaking about it that way.
* IBM believes that management of a virtualized data center, that may also include components of cloud computing, should be a major area it discusses as well.

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The desktop virtualization market was chugging along at a decent albeit unspectacular pace before Apple (NSDQ:AAPL)’s iPad arrived and helped crystallize the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept. Since then, the iPad has become the main onramp for companies looking to mobilize their work forces through the use of virtualization.

Executives were the first to bring the iPad into the workplace, but before long all types of employees were clamoring for the ability to access corporate desktops and applications from the devices. The phenomenon, and the speed with which it took hold, surprised solution providers. “People are demanding access to their applications with the device of their choosing,” said Dan Weiss, CEO and co-founder of Varrow, a virtualization solution provider in Greensboro, N.C…

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Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) channel partners are looking forward to the Mar. 23 launch of the software giant’s Windows Intune cloud-based desktop management service, but not without some wistfulness over Microsoft’s billing policy.

While the service is technically very solid, Windows Intune is being delivered under a business model that’s in direct conflict with managed service providers, according to Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a Fairfax, Va.-based solution provider…

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While smaller companies may adopt virtual machines in greater numbers in 2011, they may not necessarily adapt their backup plans to match the changes in their environments.

That’s a problem, says backup and recovery vendor Acronis, which recently took a deeper dive into the data from its January study on small and midsize business (SMB) disaster preparedness. The report found that SMBs will increase their deployments of virtual servers in 2011, with adoption jumping from 22% to 33%…

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