Virtualization has received significant attention in recent years,as more companies consider its potential to reduce costs and improve IT operations. Accordingly, a new study from Veeam Software found nearly all companies are using the technology.
According to Veeam's quarterly index, nearly 92 percent of all enterprises are currently using virtualization in some form, including virtualized desktops and servers. Furthermore, the study found that almost 40 percent of all enterprise servers are virtual.
An enterprise that has already deployed virtualization runs an average of 470 virtual machines, versus an average of 113 physical hosts, the study found. Additionally, four out of five companies indicated they plan to increase their number of virtual servers within the next 12 months.
However, the study also identified several inhibitors for increasing virtualization. Of the barriers listed, reliability seemed to be the most pressing, cited by 38.8 percent of respondents. This was followed by the need to wait for more hardware, cited by 37 percent, and application performance with 32.4 percent.
"While the results show that virtualization has become a standard technology in most enterprises, it is clear that there is still room for increased penetration," said Veeam president and CEO Ratmir Timashev. "We would expect to see consolidation ratios increase over time as organizations look to magnify the ROI they get from virtualization."
Though virtualization penetration may be high, this does not necessarily indicate that companies are satisfied with their deployments. As a recent study from CA Technologies found, nearly two-thirds of surveyed businesses are reportedly disappointed with their virtual deployments.
The main reason for this disappoint is unrealized cost savings. Though cost efficiency is typically cited as a major draw of virtualization, businesses are apparently struggling to reap these financial benefits.
However, as a CA Technologies' report pointed out, the key to cost savings with virtual machines may be automation. Not only will automation help virtualized machines run more smoothly, it can also bolster data security practices, as it simplifies many of the more complex processes.
