"Doing more with less resources has never been more true. And virtualization software has matured at the right time so that customers can save money on buying fewer servers, use less energy in datacenters and use less real estate," says Mike Neil, Microsoft's GM for Virtualization, in this Exclusive Q&A with SYS-CON's Virtualization Journal.

Virtualization Journal: Do you agree with Dell's Drew Engstrom that "virtualization has matured to the point where it is not just viewed as a red-hot, ‘solve everything' technology, but as an effective means...to meet specific business needs and objectives"? Are we really that far along already?

Mike Neil: This is a challenging time for the IT industry and our customers. Doing more with less resources has never been more true. And virtualization software has matured at the right time so that customers can save money on buying fewer servers, use less energy in datacenters and use less real estate. While adoption is still low for both server and desktops, the economics of server consolidation using virtualization software is compelling. For example, a Windows Server admin who's never used virtualization before but knows how to use Windows Server could be productive with Hyper-V in a short amount of time. For example, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center expects to save more than $325,000 annually by consolidating an additional 75 servers. And more than one-third of that savings is attributed to reducing datacenter power.

Read the rest of the interview here...