Marsvellous
So what we've now got, as we look forward with bated breath to the received wisdom of the IT future of the second decade of the twenty first century is:
. a server processor running code (some of the time, but much of the time it's idle)
. an insecure and overpriced piece of software from Vendor V running native on the processor (today it's called a hypervisor)
. an insecure and overpriced piece of software from Vendor M that thinks it's running native on the processor but isn't (it used to be called an OS when people were being generous)
. an insecure and overpriced network
. an insecure and overpriced set of essential network security facilities
. an insecure and overpriced set of application software (much but not all of which is from Vendor M) that doesn't care whether it's native or not so long as it looks like an x86
. an insecure and overpriced set of desktop clients that need constant tending from an army of clueless helldesk staff
You could probably add "and unreliable" in at least half the entries above too.
And Gartner genuinely expect people to believe that this race for the gutter really makes more sense than mainframes and minicomputers, which used to be designed and implemented by people who may not have been Microsoft Certified but at least probably knew what they were doing (on a good day)?
Marvellous. Absolutely ***** marvellous. I wish I could work for an IT market analyst (or vendor) and get paid for the rubbish they produce.