The new year is approaching (or is here dependent on your location), so what does the new year offer in the blade/grid/virtualization space? I’ve put together a few ideas and if you have any comments, do get in touch.

• Apple - are we in store for any new products? I keep reading about a more portable laptop? What about .mac.com are we going to integrate this more closely with the Apple products? Is there a new iPhone on the way? We’ll have to wait and see.
• Blade servers - will we find blade server sales continuing to increase? Will we get more blades with solid state drives? Will the blade desktop take off on the trading floors?
• Datacenter - are we going to find more people going down the greeen data center route? Will DC power or fresh air cooling become standard? Are more people going to run their data centers at higher temperatures to save on cooling?
• Grid - are more companies going to start using grid technologies? We’ll need to see what new services come online or products are developed to aid the end user in working out if their applications are ‘best suited’ for grid.
• Virtualization - is 2008 the year in which we virtualize and consolidate the desktop to thin client? Are we going to witness this kind of solution for the small/medium business or even the end user? Will I be using a company device with all my data online?
• Vista/Longhorn - will the new hotfixes and service pack that I’ve read about bring new life into Vista? Will moving to Vista?Longhorn going to be bundled in with desktop virtualization projects in 2008?

We’ll have to see what the next year brings us, regardless the coverage continues, and may you have a successful and happy new year.