This IDC study provides IDC's top 10 predictions for the system infrastructure software market in 2008. System infrastructure software includes system software, the operating foundation on which any computing system is built, and system management software, which controls the allocation and management of computing infrastructure resources. IDC sees many influencers that will shape the system infrastructure market during 2008.

"As was the case last year, 'virtualization across the enterprise' continues to be the key underlying theme and is both an enabling technology and an influencer that has changed the world of enterprise systems management and operating systems," said Al Gillen, research vice president, System Software. "During 2008, we expect that virtualization software will continue to integrate itself into the infrastructure to become part of the compute fabric."