A combination of a growing focus on reducing capital expenditures, optimising operating expenses, improving business continuity and boosting business agility, is driving demand for virtualisation solutions in the region, said an industry expert.

“In many ways, the volume of virtualization projects we are seeing in the region is a clear sign of the times we live in,” said Cesare Cardone, chief executive officer, Gulf Business Machines (GBM), the region’s leading IT solutions provider.

GBM’s customers benefit from Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings ranging from 48 to 70 per cent as a result of deploying virtualization solutions, he added.

GBM, which recently announced a 35 per cent year-on-year growth in its virtualization business, recently completed its 160th virtualization project in the Gulf region.

Virtualization is the technique of consolidating the volume of IT resources required, by creating virtual assets, such as servers and customers experience a range of benefits including reduced power and cooling costs, a decline in systems downtime, increased IT administration productivity and improved business agility.

“We currently operate in an environment where the focus on boosting efficiencies is greater than ever before and it is only natural that businesses, big and small, are seeking to reduce the amount of underutilized IT resources and, in the process, operating costs,” Cardone said.

“The universality of this trend is reflected in the diversity of our customer base, which spans industries such as banking, retail, government, hospitality and transportation.”
GBM counts all the major server consolidation and Virtualization vendors as technology partners in the region. This includes IBM, VMware, Citrix and Red Hat.

Pappu R Rao, director, Technology Services, GBM, said: “Our track record in virtualization is certainly not a coincidence and is the result of our long and varied experience in server consolidation and our ability to address all aspects including design, implementation and support for virtualization projects.”

“We also have a large technical resource pool of certified specialists that represents all the key competencies required to successfully deliver virtualization projects anywhere in the region,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service