Up, obviously.

Datamation's James Maguire, armed with fresh data from IDC, examines what the virtualization services market will look like over the next few years.

This period will spell good news for consultancies that specialize in boosting server utilization. The bad news for independents is that big jobs are likely to be overseen by the services divisions of major vendors. Isn't that always the way?

Nonetheless, opportunities abound in a market that by 2011 will double to $11.7 billion from today's $5.5 billion.

Wonder what skills are required? Hopefuls wanting to capitalize on the current stage of the market -- Phase 2 (of 3) -- should take heed...

Required for these jobs are consultants “who can look across the entire data center, look across the entire application stack, they don’t just focus on the infrastructure," Healy says. They need to be able to handle large-scale load balancing and system configuration, and must be adept at envisioning network architecture.

This stage is so critical because by the time the next phase hits -- roughly five years from now -- virtualization will be ingrained into IT operations, and frankly, not so special anymore.

So, as blacksmiths are so fond of saying, strike while the iron's hot!