CIO: What do you consider the final frontier for virtualization, in terms of apps that CIOs would like to run on VMS now but typically do not, due to performance concerns? ERP? Databases?
Akerberg:"Those are the classic examples of very I/O intensive applications, but also CAD, engineering and graphic design servers."

"With the pure databases, we are seeing more companies finally virtualize a lot of their databases. They asked us to help them do pure consistent backup of those databases," [a request that resulted in Vizioncore adding support to its vRanger Pro product for VSS (volume shadow copy services) for Microsoft databases such as Exchange], Akerberg adds.

"Clearly, there's a lot more virtualizing of databases in midsize enterprises...in the large enterprises, it's the sheer volume of those databases stopping them."

CIO: How is the intense battle between VMware, Citrix and Microsoft this summer affecting your business?
Akerberg: "We are an enhancement technology. Our business doesn't thrive without an installed base. Citrix and Microsoft, we're having conversations with them, but right now, we are focused on VMware."

CIO: Have you come across many enterprises waiting on virtualization plans because they're waiting on Microsoft's products?
Akerberg: "I really have not heard that very often. There's a lot of SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) looking at the pricepoints. There's no mystery that's where the adoption of Microsoft's technology will be the quickest."

CIO: Who do you consider your closest competitor and why?
Akerberg: "The file-level backup companies, Symantec, Tivoli, Legato. It's often our best competition because it can back up VMs, not in the most efficient way, but people may say 'It's good enough.'"

CIO: Where is the virtualization management tools market headed next?
Akerberg: "You'll see much more granularity in what the tools can do, very similar to what people are used to seeing in the physical tools. Also, automation, tying everything together, will be a really big driver. You'll see some announcements from us later in the year."

CIO: When you say automation, do you mean artificial intelligence or something else?
Akerberg: "VM Lifecycle management. Automating our vRanger and vReplicator tools with if/then statements."

CIO: Some storage vendors say there's a looming problem where enterprises aren't allocating enough storage to VMs. Do you agree?
Akerberg: "There are people for a long time who've over-allocated per VM. Now they're kind of stuck there. Maybe they didn't do the right intelligence, or were too cautious. This is a big issue in the backup space for VMs. That's where the de-duping technology comes in." [To address customer desires to make backup storage space efficient, VizionCore works with Data Domain to sell boxes with installed software to help IT understand what's on physical servers and save storage space, for example, by avoiding saving multiple copies of operating systems, Akerberg adds.]