Skytap Publishes "Top Ten Reasons Enterprises Will Accelerate Cloud Adoption With Virtual Labs in 2009"

--  Eliminates infrastructure constraints: cloud-based services allow
    companies to dynamically scale virtual environments quickly and cost-
    effectively based on business demand.
--  Turns upfront Cap-Ex into Op-Ex: Cloud services provide the same
    powerful computing resources without the large upfront investment.
    Additionally, usage is billed hourly, enabling organizations to pay for
    what they use without investing in unused capacity.
--  Brings software to market faster: Development organizations can
    support critical business initiatives by delivering applications faster
    using the cloud. A virtual lab enables development and testing environments
    to be provisioned immediately and built-in collaboration tools cut
    unproductive cycle time, resulting in shortened delivery schedules.
--  Applications run unchanged in a virtual lab: Companies do not need to
    modify or rewrite applications for the cloud using a virtual lab, so they
    can use cloud resources as an extension of their onsite environments.
--  Enables global team collaboration with a shared virtual data center:
    Developers and testers can collaborate and resolve problems on the same
    virtual machines in real time over the Web. Furthermore, by using the
    cloud, the problem of sharing large virtual machines between different
    geographically dispersed teams is eliminated.
--  Accelerates provisioning time with a self-service model: Today, a
    typical quality assurance (QA) team spends more than 40 percent of their
    time provisioning environments.  A cloud-based virtual lab automation
    solution provides a self-service Web portal so development and QA
    professionals can deploy environments without involving an IT
    administrator.
--  Increases software quality and predictability: Development and QA
    teams can achieve more test coverage and produce higher quality software
    using virtual lab automation. IT environments in the cloud can be suspended
    at the point of failure, allowing testers to 'check in' the virtual machine
    configuration to a shared library. Developers can then debug the issue by
    launching the saved configuration and eliminate hours spent trying to
    replicate a defect.
--  Reduces server sprawl: Cloud-based virtual labs have an easy-to-manage
    configuration library that helps enterprises manage, track and deploy
    virtual machines while eliminating underutilized physical hardware.
--  Creates pre-production 'sandboxes' to test the impact of production
    changes: The cloud allows IT operations to cost-effectively maintain a pre-
    production environment where changes can be tested before production
    deployment.
--  Allows IT operations teams to focus on production uptime: Cloud-based
    virtual labs eliminate set-up and tear-down time, allowing IT operations
    teams to focus work on production systems rather than spending cycles on
    lab environments.