That's good for customers who are looking for good add-on tools for security or management or integration with various applications or non-virtualizable systems.

It's not a guarantee any or all of those vendors will actually know what they're talking about when they talk virtualization; customers will still have to vet what the vendors or integrators are telling them so as not to sign on with a company with more buzz-awarness than technical skill in that particular area.

It's not particularly good news for vendors whose products don't either supply or directly support virtualization. Those tertiary vendors have to compete for attention, just as they always have, while rushing to add demonstrable, practical functions that plug weaknesses peculiar to virtual servers rather than the physical kind.

That's what's going on now-hundreds of vendors are rushing to get into Virtualization Hall before customers start wondering why they weren't there already.

The most interesting physical manifestation of this rush is going to be at the US Fall trade shows-especially VMware's 14,000-attendee extravaganza at the Venetian in Las Vegas September 16-18.

In-person conferences and trade shows have become a lot less important to both customers and vendors over the last few years-largely because of the increasing volume of product and technical data available free online, the success of virtual events, local events sponsored by integrators or solutions providers and-especially-the unbelievable pain air travel has become in the US.

Vmworld is going to be different, though. Microsoft has already shipped Hyper-V and plans to ship Virtual Machine Manager in September, signalling that all its tubes are loaded for a showdown with the virtualization mothership.

Battles between secondary vendors are popping up here and there, and look like they'll spread. And now the tertiary vendors are not only weighing in, they're starting to elbow each other for position for what many expect will be a rush of VM-related buying and integration starting this fall.

I'm not sure it's going to be nearly the windfall most of the analysts and many of the vendors apparently do; but there's going to be a lot of effort going into the effort not only to build, but sell technology to customers looking for ways to consolidate their server farms and cut the management costs associated with them.

Interesting set of dynamics, that. Lots of opportunities for bargains and special-support contracts for customers who know what they want, and lots of spitting and trash-talking from vendors worried about being left out of what's turning out to be not just a part of a big market, but a big part of every IT market.