IT professionals in financial services are turning to
virtualisation, having identified IT efficiency as a top priority
this year, according to a survey carried out by communications
provider Colt.
A total of 83% of respondents from across the financial services
sector, including investment banks and stock exchanges, said using
server virtualisation software in the datacentre was a priority.
Server virtualisation software enables multiple servers to run on
one piece of hardware.
For example, investment management company Standard Life has
saved £1m per year by introducing server virtualisation software
from Vmware to reduce the space taken up by its datacentre. It has
reduced its energy costs by £300,000 per year through the same
technology.
The Colt research found that 42% said budgets this year are the
same as last year.
Other key findings for 2009 were:
- 75% expect utility and
cloud computing to be important in the next two years
- 83% said cutting costs, and security and regulatory compliance
were top priorities
- 75% said flexible and mobile working was important
- 80% said green IT is a less important objective
Technology such as virtualisation will help IT departments cut
costs while cloud computing and mobile technology will help improve
ways of using IT already in place.
Terry Quigley, head of Colt's Financial Services team, said,
"Our latest customer poll clearly shows that organisations will be
focusing solidly on ways to optimise their current IT, as well as
using IT to streamline their processes and ways of working."