Virtualisation uptake spurs SMBs to the Cloud

As the usage of server virtualisation increases to become a mainstream activity, a small but growing number of firms, including small to medium-size businesses (SMBs), are said to be piloting Cloud-based computing initiatives.

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This is the key finding of a new survey by Forrester Research who believe that fundamentally all firms, including SMBs, are rethinking and overhauling IT infrastructure and client systems in order to achieve greater flexibility, efficiency, and performance.

The survey of 2,600 technology decision-makers in the US and Europe  has revealed that a tipping point has been reached for SMB's utilisation of server virtualisation with over half (53%) of SMBs already implementing x86 server virtualisation or doing so within the next 12 months. SMBs have virtualised already about 36% of their OS instances and within two years, SMBs expect to virtualise 61% of them. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of SMBs said they  would look to lower PC costs with technologies such as various forms of desktop or client virtualisation.

With such increased server virtualisation, SMBs, according to Forrester, are showing growing interest in Cloud service offerings such as pay-per-use-hosting of virtual servers. Yet such moves will start with a small and slowly growing base with only two percent of SMBs having already implemented pay-per-use-hosting of virtual servers, and two more SMBs planning to do so within the next 12 months.

Forrester also revealed that despite the hype about Web 2.0, decision-makers at SMBs regarded their peers and colleagues are the most valued traditional source of information for purchase decisions.