Microsoft on the rise in the Belgian server virtualization market

More than 75% of all Belgian business locations with 50 or more employees use server virtualization. In addition, 77% of the organizations use a VMware solution, 21% chose Microsoft. Last year, 83% of Belgian organizations indicated that they worked with VMware for server virtualization and 15% of organizations used server virtualization from Microsoft. This is apparent from an analysis by Smart Profile based on nearly 3400 interviews with IT managers from Belgian business locations with 50 or more employees.

Limited growth in server virtualization

In general, the Belgian market for server virtualization appears to stagnate since 2016. Smart Profile does, however, notice a slight growth of 1.6 percentage points compared to last year.

Microsoft’s share increases
Microsoft’s growth as a supplier in the server virtualization market is clearly visible. For example, the share of Microsoft in the total number of virtualized servers in 2011 was 5 percent compared to the VMware share of 92 percent. In the last five years, Microsoft has been able to significantly expand its share, which has shifted the ratio to 21% versus 77%.

Server virtualization in the various market segments

There is little difference in the use of server virtualization in different market segments. The percentages in almost all sectors are between 71% and 81%. Only education seems to lag slightly behind with 66.2%.

Microsoft leading at financial service providers

If we look at the position of suppliers in the various sectors, it is clear that VMware has sole control in the transport market and that Microsoft has a strong position with financial service providers. In the construction, manufacturing and education sectors, the percentages between the VMware and Microsoft solutions used are significantly closer to each other, although in these markets VMware is also at the forefront.

Use of desktop virtualization and application virtualization are lagging behind

The Smart Profile analysis also shows that desktop virtualization is only applied minimally in Belgium (4%) and that there is no growth in this market. Furthermore, 16% of Belgian organizations use an application for application virtualization. This mainly concerns the Xenapp solution from Citrix. The percentage of organizations that opt for application virtualization is the lowest in the government (8.8%) and the highest in the transport sector (26.8%). The first is partly an explanation for the low penetration (6%) of application virtualization in the Brussels-Capital Region compared to 21% in Flanders. Wallonia is at the bottom with only 4% of the organizations that use application virtualization. It is striking that the Belgian market for application virtualization has hardly shown any growth in recent years.