Despite an economic slowdown that's wreaking havoc on most IT markets, the ramp up of large-scale virtual server implementations around the world will drive tremendous demand for a newly defined competitive market – virtual server management software – for distributed systems (principally Windows, Unix, and Linux platforms). According to new research from IDC, the worldwide distributed virtual server management software market had revenues of $871 million in 2008 and will approach $2.3 billion in 2013; a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.3% over the forecast period.

In the near term, the distributed virtual server management software market will be dominated by products related to change and configuration management, including discovery, configuration, provisioning, software distribution, and change control. "While change and configuration management will rule in the short term, performance management and event automation management capabilities will eventually take hold," said Mary Johnston Turner, research director, System Management Software. By 2012–2013, distributed virtual server management capabilities will begin to blend into core systems management architectures and will no longer be viewed as a standalone competitive market, having become part of the fabric of dynamic datacenters.

Additional findings from IDC's research include the following:

• Many customers have not yet integrated virtual and physical resource management processes or aligned virtual server management activities with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
• Over the next five years, the distributed virtual server management software market will evolve and mature, creating significant opportunities for new competitors.
• A strong spirit of "coopetition" will permeate this market over the next several years.

This study, Worldwide Distributed Virtual Server Management Software 2009-2013 Forecast: A First Look (IDC #217485), presents IDC’s preliminary top-down sizing of the worldwide distributed virtual server management software market in 2008 and a forecast of worldwide growth in this market for 2009-2013. This analysis is IDC’s first sizing and forecast for this emerging competitive market. Only top-line total market data is shown in this study. The study specifically excludes software related to mainframe, storage, network, or desktop virtualization management. Vendor market share data, as well as data for geographic regions, will be provided in subsequent IDC publications.