luckyinfil wrote:That's a very narrow point of view, and I don't think it's necessarily accurate. While virtualization gives you significant advantages, there are always situations where a physical is still required. For example, servers which utilize high CPU/memory/network/whatever resources which have been proven to be not good candidates of virtualization and consolidation will always remain physical no matter the advancement in virtualization technology.
If you have the means to do it already and there is a demand from the customers, why not simply implement it and charge for it? Regardless of your beliefs, it will not take you much resources to integrate a technology you have working into your B&R product. It just seems like such a no brainer to me - the customer is literally telling you to "shut up and take my money".
Simply because we like to take a very narrow point of view, especially when we think that this narrow view is the future... and this strategy is exactly what made Veeam the fastest growing backup company in history. We are not trying to be everything to everyone - we prefer to be the best for some. This approach lets us leverage limited resources we possess most optimally.
We were virtual only 7 years ago, when virtual was a niche - but we knew this was the future. Fast forward to 2014, and now physical is the niche - and we are the leader in backup for "new normal", virtual machines! On the other hand, look at those other companies who have tried to cover all bases at once, and are currently enjoying the view of our receding tail lights
luckyinfil wrote:OH, and just to add, VDI is pretty common out there nowadays and will probably be the norm in the future.
May be in certain market segments only, because it is extremely uncommon within our customer base, which is not so small these days... we will see what happens in the next 5 years, but the past 5 years of VDI buzz did not really bring this technology any meaningful market share, especially in SMB market. And huge need for "thick endpoint" backup solution only proves this.
Where physical servers will be in a few years from now? Only God knows. Certain promising upcoming virtualization technologies, application stack improvements and newer hardware may very well put the last nail in the coffin of physical servers by addressing all of the concerns you have listed. There is also a small chance that virtualization will end up failing completely, and the industry will recognize that physical servers are must have in 21st century, while cloud is a myth. Either way, having all required technologies in hands - and well polished thanks to our free products (just like FastSCP helped our Backup to achieve its famous reliability), we will be well prepared to quickly react to our customers' demands in changing market conditions.
