The virtualization game has changed: A new playbook for IT leaders

In today's business, success isn't just about playing the game–it's about having the right strategy to win. Like a top team constantly adapting its formation to a changing opponent, organisations are grappling with complex IT environments, rising costs, and the need to modernise for workloads like AI. The question is, how do we find a way forward that provides greater control and a clear path to innovation? The answer lies in how we approach virtualization.

To help leaders understand how the situation has shifted, Red Hat released a report on the state of virtualization. It reveals critical insights into how forward-thinking organisations are harnessing a unified platform for virtualization and containers to become more agile and flexible. I've been discussing these very topics with our customers, partners, and peers for some time now, and the insights in this report are a perfect articulation of what I've seen firsthand: there is a widespread desire for a new playbook for the future of IT infrastructure.

A market in motion

Our customers are asking for a platform that drives tangible change and positions them for ongoing success. What truly solidifies my understanding of the changing virtualization market is the sheer scale of the market movement revealed in the report. It's one thing to know there's a buzz about change, but it’s another to see the data: 70% of organisations have recently moved virtual machine (VM) workloads to a different or additional hypervisor—or are in the process of making a switch. This isn't just contemplation, it's a widespread reassessment of existing platforms driven by a fundamental belief that the existing strategy is no longer sufficient. 

Organisations are not just thinking about it, but are actively executing on a new virtualization strategy that addresses their primary pain points, including licensing costs (31%), and management complexity (31%). Vendor lock-in (28%) and concerns about the continued support of existing platforms (27%), along with confidence in long-term vision (24%), are also frequent topics.

These echo the concerns and desires I hear daily from customers, partners, and peers. In recent conversations with a large enterprise client in the manufacturing sector, they explicitly cited escalating licensing fees and the cumbersome process of managing a sprawling VM estate across different tools as major pain points. I've heard similar sentiments from a global financial services company grappling with uncertainty about their incumbent vendor's future direction and the implications for their long-term infrastructure strategy. They, like many, are looking for assurances that their chosen platform will evolve with them and not become a dead end.

The message is clear: the current state of play isn't working for many enterprises. The market is not just thinking about a switch. It's already making one.

The strategic shift

The most compelling insight for me was: "Virtualization is here to stay, but platform needs are evolving." This clearly captures that strategic shift we're seeing in the market. While organisations have achieved tangible value from virtualization, with over 70% seeing benefits like enabling cloud strategy and improved disaster recovery, the game has changed. The platform itself must do more to satisfy evolving needs across automation and AI-powered capabilities (38%), integration with existing IT infrastructure (37%), and enabling more innovation and modernisation (36%).

This tells us that simply running VMs is no longer a winning formula in the future state of IT infrastructure. The modern platform must be a unifying force. For example, a recent discussion I had with a technology partner highlighted how their clients are increasingly prioritizing platforms that can natively integrate AI for predictive analytics and automated operations, rather than provide bolted-on solutions. The call for a unified environment for workloads—including containers, VMs, and serverless (34%), is also a constant theme. This reflects the reality that organisations are no longer just VM shops—they have diverse application portfolios, and managing VMs and containers in silos is operationally inefficient. I've discussed this extensively with a major telecommunications provider, who emphasized their need for a single control plane to manage both their traditional VM-based network functions and their new containerized microservices.

A new game plan for a new era

If I could only share one powerful takeaway from this report, it would be that leaders must stop viewing virtualization solutions as a traditional technology and start seeing it as a strategic enabler. The future of IT is inherently diverse and complex, blending traditional VMs with modern containerized and serverless workloads across hybrid and multicloud environments. Therefore, leaders must prioritize investing in a virtualization platform that offers not just core VM management, but also provides a unified operational model, embraces automation and AI, and offers a clear, evolutionary path towards modernisation and the consistent integration of all workloads. The time to plan for this evolution is now, as the data clearly shows many organisations are already well into this transition.

At Red Hat, our position is clear. We’ve been innovating with virtualization for decades. The world is catching up to the vision we've championed from the beginning: that open source is the future of enterprise IT. We're here to help you get there. Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization brings together traditional virtualization and cloud-native development onto a single, open platform. 

Don't just look for a replacement hypervisor; look for a strategic platform that can unify your disparate environments and accelerate your journey toward innovation and efficiency. The time for a new game plan is now. Our solutions are specifically designed to deliver a tailored, cost-optimized path for your virtualization workloads, while laying the foundation for AI, automation, and innovation. We're ready to help you seize this opportunity and build the infrastructure of tomorrow, today.

Read other takeaways and lessons from our state of virtualization report.

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