Gartner says, "The rapid onslaught of new technology is challenging the data center as never before.  The IT organization needs to brace itself for new styles of server virtualization, another wave of server applicances and more diskless blades."

They predict that "by 2010, mainstream virtualization technology will embrace I/O virtualization, breaking the traditional bonds between physical servers, network switches and storage area network (SAN) switches; by 2010, shared operating system (OS) virtualization will become mainstream (for example, Solaris Containers and SWsoft Virtuozzo)."

Check out Gartner's report, Predicts 2007: Brace Yourself for the Next Wave of Server Technology.  Read the entire report, here.