Virtualisation becoming more popular, research finds

Nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of businesses have either deployed virtualisation solutions or are planning to do so soon, according to new research.

A survey of 750 senior IT professionals and executives across 20 countries was carried out by the Yankee Group.

Key reasons for corporations to virtualise their data centres included disaster recovery, backup, server and licensing consolidation, which lower total cost of ownership and accelerate return on investment.

"Corporate enterprises are tightening their spending belts while searching for alternative 'Anywhere Application' environments that increase cost efficiencies and without sacrificing capability or performance," said a research fellow at Yankee Group, Laura DiDio.

"Organisations need not look any further than the virtualisation market for the appropriate solution."

The research was backed up by a recent claim by Tom Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

He described virtualisation as "one of the most impactful trends in computing", and said that the availability of free hypervisors will both grow the market and provide a "compelling reason" for companies who have not yet embraced virtualisation to begin doing so.