I recently received an e-mail that contained a survey, which asked something like: Which of the following is going to be the hot topic for IT in 2007? The choices given were: open-source software; server virtualization; Vista; VoIP; wireless. Two things immediately struck me. First, the iPhone didn't make the list, and second, all of the suggested hot topics for 2007 are old; in fact, some of them really are getting very long in the tooth. At least the iPhone could have led to amusing anecdotes concerning Steve Jobs.

I was at a software conference a few years ago, and Jobs was the keynote speaker. As Jobs walked out to the podium dressed in his predictable jeans and black turtleneck, the crowd gasped. The young woman seated next to me exclaimed, "I can't believe it's really him!" I was totally unprepared for the adoration bestowed on Jobs by his fans–after all, wasn't Wozniak the smart one? Evidently not. Jobs was right up there with Elvis (during his heyday), which makes me understand why the popular press makes such a big fuss over–gasp–iTunes on an iPhone . . . and the technical intelligentsia yawn. Yes, there is a reason Apple dropped the word Computer from its name. And that brings me back to our questionnaire above, and the only item in the list even remotely interesting and timely: server virtualization.

Virtual server machines in the context of server operating systems that are running on actual physical devices are showing up more and more in the data center. I recently was working with a client who just had received delivery of four new servers. Two of them were virtual, and two of them were "real." How your organization deploys and uses virtual servers will have a direct impact on how efficiently you are able to use existing resources, and that will reflect itself directly on the bottom line.