Windows Comes Out On Top With Virtualization

As a follow-up to our earlier post on the Windows vs. Linux and Unix debate, a recent post in Information Week’s Microsoft Weblog points to a poll conducted by Sage Research that shows that IT managers are inclined to run Windows on their virtual machines nearly twice as often as Linux. However, Charles Babcock suggests that the virtual OS adoption rate indicates that “Linux is running more than its traditional share of the data center when those servers take the form of virtual machines.”

The study shows that 96% of IT decision makers run Windows on their virtual servers, and 52% also run Linux. This would seem to indicate that Linux is gaining ground on Windows in the virtual server world. Babcock has a different explanation – he suggests the Linux growth merely indicates that “Linux is replacing a Unix server more often than a Windows server” for virtual environments.

Our report, StackSafe IT Operations Bulletin: Operating Systems for Multi-Tier Applications, showed that the Windows operating system is dominant for multiple-tier applications running on physical servers – 68% for Windows versus 12% for Linux and 11% for UNIX. The Sage poll expands on these findings by showing that while the majority of IT decision makers polled (121 of 126) indicated that they are running Windows on their virtual servers, 66 respondents also claimed to run Linux on their virtual servers.

When the findings of these studies are taken together, it appears that Windows and Linux have much to gain from the market’s rapidly increasing adoption of virtualization, while UNIX will be the odd man out.

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Filed Under: IT Operations, IT Operations Research, Virtualization