More than half of UK businesses (51%) have not adapted
datacentre management strategies to meet the challenges of
virtualisation,research has revealed.
The rapid deployment of virtualisation technology has led IT
managers to lose track of virtual machines across their
organisations, the survey commissioned by
IT consultant firm Morse found.
Two-thirds (67%) of 100 IT directors questioned said they do not
know how many virtual machines their organisation has, despite 56%
claiming they had the necessary management systems in place.
The survey, by Vanson Bourne, revealed that the problem is
compounded by the fact that 38% of UK businesses have decentralised
virtual machine management.
More than half (55%) of financial companies surveyed said they
had adopted this approach, which allows various parts of the
business to introduce and withdraw virtual machines
independently.
Virtualisation reduces the need for physical servers and helps
companies to use existing servers to full capacity by enabling a
single server to run multiple operating systems.
The technology is becoming increasingly popular because of the
environmental and
cost benefits.
According to the survey, half of UK companies using
virtualisation do it because of the cost benefits, 17% to eliminate
server sprawl, and 14% to increase utilisation rates.
Tom Brand, senior consultant at Morse, said as more businesses
adopt virtualisation, it is essential to take a more strategic and
disciplined approach.
Many organisations have been taken by surprise by just how
quickly virtual machines have spread and have not ensured that the
virtual environment is being managed properly, according to
Brand.
"Failure to do so will not only hold the IT department back from
using virtualisation to transform the services it provides, but
also place the business at risk of data loss," he said.