Network managers have been watching the advent of virtualization over the past several months with a certain amount of apprehension.

Each physical server has the potential, for example, to run five virtual machines, which increases the utilization rate of the physical servers. But it also increases the likelihood that each physical server is going to be sending out a lot more network traffic thanks to the increased number of applications that will now be running on each server.

One of the first vendors to recognize that fact that network managers are going to have to be able to monitor and manage virtual machines within the context of a network management console is SolarWinds. The company announced today that not only is it extending its Orion Network Performance Monitor to add support for virtual machines from VMware, it is also making available a free version of its tool that can be used to monitor a virtual machine environment running on a single server.

SolarWinds joins a chorus of vendors that argue that it's become critical to extend existing network and systems management tools into the realm of virtualization. They argue that IT organizations don't need to invest in learning separate management tools for physical and virtual environments and the impact of decisions in one environment can be devastating on another unless the management infrastructure for both are tightly coupled.

In general, the advent of virtualization is going to require various systems, storage and network management disciplines to work more closely together to present a holistic view of the environment. What's unknown at this point is how much that requirement will drive a wave of mergers among the vendors in this space as customer's increasing focus less on any one specific component in favor of a more integrated view of their IT systems that would ultimately make them easier to manage.