Research by Gartner shows that while 80 percent of enterprises now have virtualization on the cards only 25 percent of all server workloads will be in virtualized machines by the end of this year.

 

It said that as a result, virtualization will continue to be one of the “highest-impact” issues challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015.

 

And as the technology matures, according to Gartner research Vice President Philip Dawson, composition and management automation of virtualized resources will also become a concern.

 

"Virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge," Dawson said. 

 

"Virtualization now drives efficient IT from all angles, including data center design, platform updates, and application and infrastructure modernization, as well as traditional and new delivery models, such as infrastructure utility and cloud computing. However, virtualization does take investment; the savings are not a given."

 

This means while a number of IT leaders may have already planned for the virtualization of x86 servers, they should be taking a more holistic view, according to Gartner. 

 

Companies that do this will be more likely to progress beyond cost savings with server virtualization to realise faster deployments, reduced downtime, disaster recovery, variable accounting and usage chargeback, holistic capacity planning and more.

 

It even means data center ramifications for desktop computing (see our IT update covering desktop virtualization in the upcoming issue of FOCUS – edition 12).

 

"While this (desktop virtualization) enhances flexibility for administration, it does require more computing and storage capacity at the data center level," Dawson said.

 

"HVDs (hosted virtual desktops) are poised to undergo explosive growth, and enterprises are anticipating the flexibility and other benefits that these devices will bring.

 

“However, enterprises need to understand the strain this technology can place on their data center infrastructures and operations, especially when thousands of employees use this platform type."