Opsware doesn't have virtualization and I wouldn't expect it to be on their roadmap. They do however have a pretty good partnership program with VMware, and will likely leverage that as well as other virtualization technologies (Solaris Zones, MS Virtual PC, and Xen) as they become more viable in the market.

Unless you're an OS maker that can tie the tech directly to the kernal, it would be pretty dumb at this point to compete with VMware who have a huge lead in the market and in mindshare. Actually, even if you are an OS maker it may not make much sense at this point.

Where I see the virtualization component becoming important is when users stop managing their applications from the bottom-up at the infrastructure level, and start managing them from the top-down at a service level. At that point, the ability to seemlessly move an app from server to server will require the abstraction layer that virtualization provides so a certain quality of service may be maintained.

IT architects and other bleeding edge folks like to talk about the application or service-level management now, but no one that I've seen is actually doing it yet. I think the reason, as you note, is that it requires an end-to-end automation system, and the virtualization component is a 'must have' so the hardware allocation isn't a game of comparing apples to oranges. Looks like Opsware is the closest to meeting the basic requirements, though EMC keeps making acquisitions that bring it closer as well. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out.