IT pros still argue over horizontal vs. vertical scaling, but the evolution of virtualization hardware appears to have subtly shifted the data center design debate to horizontal scaling vs. converged infrastructure.

Virtualization is winning the battle over installing an operating system on bare metal, and I think most people will concede that point. Not everyone has adopted virtualization, but time will soften their defenses and allow for improved virtualization  and options — until all are assimilated.

But what will happen to server hardware? Do people still care about the server? Even hypervisors need a physical home, and there are still plenty of discussions on how to best architect that foundation.

To read more on this topic, jump over to my TechTarget article “Virtualization hardware and data center design: did the debate shift?”