The traditional IT stack with its tight coupling of software and hardware falls short of supporting customers’ needs. The accelerating rate of business change, non-negotiable requirements for 24X7 business resiliency and inexorable pressure to reduce cost are increasing the pressure on IT. At the same time, IT has dramatic opportunity to change the status quo by leveraging the immense power and attractive economics of x86 hardware, the maturing of virtualization technologies, increasing choice in new application architectures and the availability of vast new clouds of cheap and readily accessible computing power.