3. Akorri

Akorri's BalancePoint suite can help solve one of the toughest questions IT teams have around virtualization: How far can I push this physical server by adding on more VMs without affecting application service levels? BalancePoint's analysis tools can see across server, storage and software issues to help you plan and manage workload balancing issues. Monster.com, for instance, uses Balance Point to see which apps are competing for storage and server resources—and ensure IT's ability to meet service-level goals. BalancePoint also can help decipher why a particular VM is not performing as well as expected.

4. Platform Computing

Also fighting on the workload automation front, Platform Computing's VM Orchestrator and Enterprise Grid Orchestrator products could get the attention of more IT groups in 2008. "Platform Computing has a history of expertise in grid computing and workload automation," notes Burton Group's Wolf, "and I believe several virtualization vendors will look to leverage Platform Computing's proven architecture as they build out products to compete with workload automation alternatives such as VMware's Distributed Resource Scheduler."

5. Embotics

Embotics calls itself a "VM Lifecycle Management" company. That's the kind of jargon that not everyone likes. But the company's V-Commander software (which integrates with VMware's VirtualCenter management suite) deserves interest, says IDC Research Director Stephen Elliott. The product aims to reign in the problem of "rogue VMs" that IT may not know about, and lets IT apply policies and automation to the job of tagging and tracking each VM in the company. Embotics claims early success with customers in regulated industries who face extra audit pressure. "They are taking a lifecycle perspective, really looking at integrating security controls, change management and policy from one dashboard," Elliot says. "The goal is to help users drive an integrated governance approach to managing virtual machines—notably from the use of policies that dictate the virtual machine lifecycle from creation to retirement."

6. EqualLogic

Storage firm EqualLogic, recently acquired by Dell, became known for its iSCSI storage-area network (SAN) products, which have now been optimized for virtualization. These products can help enterprise IT radically reduce storage costs using a SAN. (Before iSCSI, the only other mainstream option was fibre channel, a technology that's too complex and expensive to manage for many companies.) Within storage, iSCSI is a hot growth area: IDC (a sister company to CIO's publisher) expects 25 percent of all external storage sold in 2011 to be iSCSI-based. For more advice on why and how to deploy iSCSI SANs, see Rethink Your Storage Infrastructure.