Quoting Business News America

Virtualization and open source are the two technologies that are likely to have the most impact on Brazil in 2007, according to US tech consultancy Gartner.

Speaking at Gartner's annual future of technology conference in São Paulo, analyst Carl Claunch said that virtualization will have a proportionally bigger impact in Brazil compared to other Latin American countries due to the importance of mainframe computers in Brazil.

Virtualization is the technique of managing and presenting storage devices and resources functionally, regardless of their physical layout or location.

Examples of virtualization, which can boost the use of IT resources, include the virtual movement of a container from one mainframe server to another, Claunch explained during a presentation on the top 10 technologies for 2007.

This means that the operating system and the workload inside can continue without disruption, said Claunch.

Worldwide, Gartner estimates that by 2008 open source software solutions will directly compete with proprietary software products in all software infrastructure markets.

The consultancy also believes that by 2010 mainstream IT organizations will consider open source software in 80% of their infrastructure-focused software investments.

Gartner expects that grid computing, which can draw on the resources of many computers to solve a problem, will be used by many research organizations for intensive workloads.

Companies can use grid computing to test every possible compound to find candidates to block smallpox or cancer, Claunch explained. Major pharmaceutical companies can use grid computing to save an estimated US$1bn if they bring a new drug to market a year early, he added.

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