NEW YORK CITY—In the coming 18 months, virtualization, already a mainstream tool for IT administrators looking to consolidate applications within a data center, will continue to be adopted within enterprises as companies expand the technology to plan for business continuity and create high-availability servers.

In addition, virtualization will become more available in desktops and within mobile devices, such as cell phones. This flexibility will allow businesses to reduce costs and increase security at the PC level.

These were some of the main topics of discussion at the IDC Virtualization Forum here Feb. 6, which attempted to look at the future of virtualization and where the technology is going in the next 18 to 24 months.

While virtualization does have benefits, serious issues concerning security—both at the level of the hypervisor and within the network—still remain. Enterprises and their IT departments will also have to contend with how to allocate costs within a virtual environment and deal with issues concerning the licensing of proprietary products within a virtual world, such as an Oracle database or a Microsoft operating system.

Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Virtualization Enters '2.0' Era.

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