The growing popularity of virtualisation means the concept has become dominant in the IT world, it has been claimed.
According to Paul Venezia of InfoWorld.com, the issue has "evolved into the core technology" of the current IT industry and it is likely to define the area "for the foreseeable future".
Writing in a column, he outlined that the world of virtualisation can be described in terms of providers as "those that are running VMware and those that aren't".
He explained this is because the vendor is ahead of the likes of Microsoft and Citrix, adding that their present efforts have only got them on par with VMware's systems introduced four years ago.
The expert added: "This isn't necessarily a good thing for IT in general - stiff competition generally leads to better, cheaper solutions all around - and Microsoft and Citrix are certainly working hard to catch up.
"But they can't avoid the hard reality that they're several years behind."
Scott Hunter of ComputerWeekly.com recently claimed that many firms are trying to make their IT operations more sustainable by embracing virtualisation systems.