Quoting CRN Australia

This past year was an exciting one for chip companies like Intel, AMD and Nvidia. In processors and platforms, next year looks to be another one filled with technological innovation and oversold hype, business rumors that don't pan out and surprises that shock us all, and as always, winners and losers in the big game of chips.

ChannelWeb assembled a panel of industry experts comprising vendors, analysts and solution providers to discuss what they think will be the most important

TECHNOLOGY

4. Virtualisation Goes Mainstream

Virtualisation may have been the hottest technology in 2007, what with VMware's boffo IPO, Citrix's acquisition of XenSource as well as Oracle and Microsoft's belated entry into the fray. But 2008 will be the year when all the buzz becomes reality, panelists said. Bob Anderson, executive vice president of business development and strategy at ZT Systems, saide he thinks that the push for power savings in data centers is the overarching story that affects all other trends in the market. And as IT professionals continue to fret about reducing the energy consumption of servers, virtualization will be regarded as the No. 1 cure.

Patrick Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD described 2006 as the "proof-of-concept" year for server virtualization, 2007 as a year of testing and small-scale integration, while, "2008 is the year in which you're going to see actual volume."

That means continued jockeying for virtual pride-of-place on Windows and Unix servers between HP, IBM, Dell and Sun, as well as plenty of opportunities for smaller system builders. Managed IT service providers will also have a piece of the action, according to Moorhead, who said, "Virtualisation is going to make a huge statement in the MSP channel." He also believes client-side virtualization is now in the position that the server-centered technology occupied in 2006.

Keith Millar, vice president of product management at Liquid Computing, added, "There's going to be a race to support Virtual Machines with processor features, such as memory mapping and virtual page management."

Read about the others identified by CRN, here.