Has virtualization technology finally come into its own? IT shops around the world are flocking to the technology in the hopes that they aren't too late to the party. And the financial sector has also been taking a much larger interest in the technology and the company's producing it. The rumor mill is spinning as well, with the latest piece of "information" coming out around the notion that IBM and/or Cisco may Has virtualization technology finally come into its own? IT shops around the world are flocking to the technology in the hopes that they aren’t too late to the party. And the financial sector has also been taking a much larger interest in the technology and the company’s producing it. The rumor mill is spinning as well, with the latest piece of “information” coming out around the notion that IBM and/or Cisco may be interested in acquiring Citrix.Citrix stock climbed last week with rumors circulating about a possible take over bid. Avian Securities analyst Jeff Gaggin stated in a research note that Citrix has a virtualization management offering that has become a real threat to virtualization rival VMware. But while an acquisition by the likes of IBM or Cisco makes sense, Gaggin doesn’t know if there is any truth behind the rumors.If you remember, Cisco has been marching toward their Data Center 3.0 plan that includes virtualization and automation. This plan included a $150 million investment in VMware, giving the company a 1.6 percent ownership and a possible seat on VMware’s board. Moving toward this goal, Cisco also created VFrame Data Center – a hardware and software platform for provisioning resources together as virtual services. A Citrix acquisition would strengthen the company’s Data Center 3.0 vision and would also enhance the company’s networking line with products like NetScalar and WANScalar. IBM is also looking to make its mark in the virtualization community – which may sound odd since IBM invented virtualization some 40+ years ago. Big Blue has been contributing code to various virtualization hypervisor technologies over the years, but it may come as no surprise to you that IBM isn’t usually mentioned anywhere near the top of the list when people are having conversations about virtualization technologies. Within the application space, IBM continues to support virtualization technology with products like IBM Director and its latest Intrusion Protection System codenamed PHANTOM. And I’m sure the fact that VMware being owned by rival company EMC doesn’t sit very well with them either, so perhaps having their own solutions like the one’s created by Citrix makes perfect sense where IBM could make the XenServer hypervisor its preferred brand with their server offerings.With a market cap of $6 billion, Citrix won’t be an easy acquisition for most companies to undertake. Software Development