More Chinese firms will adopt virtualization technologies on databases to cut hardware and maintenances cost and save energy, a US-based IT research firm said yesterday in Shanghai.

The global demand of computer servers for enterprise-level data centers is expected to reach 60 million units in 2010, and about a quarter of that capacity demand will be met by the virtualized servers but not real servers, according to International Data Corp.

The virtualization helps chief information officers to save the server budget and improve efficiency of the usage of power and water, which helps protect the environment, according to Vicki Cui, research manager of IDC China's computing system research.

Power consumption of data centers in the US will reach 100 billion kilowatts in 2011 if they use traditional methods, which requires 10 additional power plants, according to a statement from IBM, citing the US Environment Protection Agency.

China's adoption rate of the technologies, however, was only 17 percent in 2006, one-third of the rate in Japan and lower than India, according to IDC.

"China's adoption rate will surge within the next two or three years, firstly in companies with more than 100 servers," said Cui at an IT forum in Shanghai yesterday.

"We have seen some vendors in the sector double revenue in the past year," Cui added, without providing detailed figures.

Companies including Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Cisco talked about the visions of future data centers, including virtualization.

IBM, which defines visualization as a green technology, said it has great potential in China, a country aware of energy protection.

(Shanghai Daily December 5, 2007)