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According to the company, the number of virtual machines will increase from 540,000 at the end of last year to more than four million by 2009.

"Several things will make virtualisation critical to most enterprises in the next few years: the need to consolidate space, power, installation and integration, and providing server resources which are capable of responding to unpredictable workloads," Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman told a conference in Sydney yesterday.

It's

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no longer just about server and storage consolidation or cost saving, but about allowing different service delivery methods, such as putting a virtualised layer on employee-owned PCs for those working at home.

Despite virtualisation on PCs lagging a few years behind servers, it is going to be much bigger because of the potential uses, he said.

"On the PC, it is about isolation and creating a managed environment that the user can't touch," Bittman said. "This will help change the paradigm of desktop computer management in organizations. It will make the trend towards employee-owned notebooks more manageable, flexible and secure."

Still, the growth in virtualisation will reduce the number of servers sold, he said.

"Every virtual server has the potential to take another physical server off the market," Bittman said, adding that virtualisation reduced the x86 server market by four per cent last year. "Today more than 90 per cent of users deploying virtual machines are doing so specifically to reduce x86 server, space and energy costs."