From Systems Management News:

A recent Microsoft study shows that retail environments are starting to make the push into virtualization as well. These are traditionally slow-moving markets due to their extended reach (everybody's a remote site!). So, seeing this move on their part illustrates where we are in the virtualization adoption curve. Space and cost are big drivers here. From the survey:

The survey found that nearly half of the participating retailers (49 percent) are using virtualization within their store locations to help them save money, while 46 percent are using it to better respond to issues and failures of applications and systems, and 43 percent said virtualization helps them save space. Energy savings were also a factor--31 percent of respondents cited green incentives as driving their purchase of virtualization technology.

According to Geoff Thomas, general manager of Microsoft's U.S. Retail and Hospitality Group, for large retail chains, adding just one more server or application per store can be costly. "That is why virtualization is an attractive alternative, as more than 50 percent of retailers surveyed had between three and 10 servers in each of their stores already," he said.

Among the 29 percent of respondents who are not using virtualization, one quarter (25 percent) said their company is considering it. Among those not considering implementing virtualization technologies, more than half said the main reason is cost.