Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2015.  Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed article by Simon Rust, Director, Product Management at 1E

2015 Predictions for the Virtualization Market

The virtualization market is yet again poised for changes in 2015 as growing BYOD demand will continue to push IT departments to evolve their positioning and policies to satisfy employees. Throughout the latter stages of 2014, indicators have shown that virtualization technology is finally reaching its maturity and is positioned for a successful year in 2015 with the help of Windows 10 and several smaller vendors that will be driving the evolution of Mobile Information Management. Our full list of 2015 predictions is included below.

Prediction #1: Market will shift to Mobile Information Management (MIM)

In 2015, we will start to see a shift from Mobile Device Management (MDM) to Mobile Information Management (MIM) limiting an organization's control over employees' personal devices to solely the corporate information and data on those devices. Currently, under the MDM segment, the majority of BYOD security solutions access everything that is on an employee's personal cellphone or tablet - including pictures, applications and email - allowing them to completely wipe the device to protect corporate data if need be. Naturally, employees are reluctant, if not unwilling, to give their employer complete control over their personal devices, which has long been an obstacle for widespread adoption of BYOD.

Crucial to the long-term success of BYOD, the shift to MIM will bring the ability for organizations to access only corporate data and applications that are installed and stored on an employee's device with no visibility into personal content or applications on the device. IT departments will only be able to monitor and control corporate data downloaded onto an employee's device with no access to personal material on that device. With an organization's access to employees' personal devices limited to securing and wiping corporate data, BYOD will become increasingly popular.

This is a paramount shift which has been demanded by employees. A major indicator of the viability of this market need is demonstrated by the inclusion ofenterprise data protection solutions as in Windows 10. After the Windows 8 debacle, Microsoft has listened to its users and is implementing controls to secure corporate data individually from personal data on a user's personal device. While Microsoft will fill as much as 80 percent of this market need, small vendors will jump in to fill the gaps.

Prediction #2: Demand for BYOD will shift to demand for BYOPC

While the advent of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was a revolution in the way that employees access corporate resources on their smartphones and tablets, for most users, these devices are purely consumption devices.For real work, users revert to using their PCs, and in most organizations they will need to use Windows. With this mindset shift within the user base, they are now demanding to use the PC of their choice, often a Mac, leading to the next wave of BYOD; Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC).

As this shift continues, BYOPC use cases will change throughout 2015.Though this will not be a monumental shift,BYOPC will extend beyond top executives who havepreviously handed their Mac to the IT department and demanded that itbe programmed to the network. Throughout 2014, we will see consultants, marketing executives, product managers and more junior level employees wanting to use their own computer. As this takes hold, companies will realize that they can save a small fortune by not providing computers for employees.According to research by Gartner, by 2017 half of the world's companies will have a percentage of their employees individually provide devices for work.

Prediction#3: The increase of importance of the IT Security Manager

Demand for BYOD has grown in the past 8-10 years as smartphones emerged and workers gained interest in using their own device for work purposes. Throughout 2014, companies realized that they would need to listen to employees' demands for BYOD and through 2015 these companies will begin implementing BYOD policies. Because of this ongoing demand for BYOD and BYOPC, we will see the IT Security Manager job function will become ever more important in an organization. The role will oversee the implementation of BYOD policies and security measures whichgive companies control over corporate data on one's personal device instead of control over the entire device satisfying employees' desires while doing so in a fashion that keeps company data secure.

Prediction#4: VDI growth will remain stagnant

Estimates vary, but compared with the 700 million or so enterprise PCs in the world, most analysts put the number of VDI users worldwide at anywhere between 10-15 million (or approximately 2 percent of the workforce).With such a low market penetration and the entrance of more affordable, flexible and secure virtualization solutions in 2014, the outlook for VDI in 2015 is bleak. While the market for VDI will likely not decrease, it is only positioned for small, incremental growth as companies are shifting their focus to mobility solutions to meet user demand. As the market moves toward a focus on mobile data and information management, we will continue to stray from mobile device management,making VDI an even less attractive option for workers.

There has been competition in the virtualization space for the past 5-6 years, however these solutions have had moderate to low success because the market did not have as much of a need for such solutions combined with this virtualization technology not yet being mature. In 2014, we saw a notable shift as employees began to demand virtualization solutions for their personal devices (laptops) and product teams increasingly implemented controls separating corporate data and applications from personal data. These controls will help drive virtualization and BYOD/BYOPC adoption in 2015 and beyond.

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