Half of virtualisation projects end in failure

Firms cite inability to quantify return on investment

Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 28 Mar 2007

Almost half of global virtualisation projects end in failure, new research has claimed.

A poll of 800 organisations around the world commissioned by Computer Associates found that 44 per cent of respondents who had deployed server virtualisation technology were unable to declare their deployment a success.

The inability to quantify return on investment was a key factor in this reticence to claim positive results, the research found.

The study also claimed that 71 per cent of organisations which have moved ahead with virtualisation have deployed, or plan to deploy, multiple server virtualisation technologies.

These include operating system and hardware virtualisation, operating system partitioning, para-virtualisation and/or clustering.

Some 60 per cent of organisations actually consider clustering as a type of server virtualisation, adding to the heterogeneity of virtualised environments.

For organisations claiming success with virtualisation, the most important factor was being able to measure the performance of the virtualised environment.

Other key factors include diligent inventorying of server assets and load distribution, and thorough investigation of available technology solutions.

The research suggested that organisations are primarily deploying virtualisation to improve server/system utilisation rates, increase server reliability and uptime, and enhance business continuity.

"While the market has yet to mature, it is clear that significant benefits await those organisations that implement proven virtualisation best practices," said Paula Daley, director of product marketing at CA.

"CA is supporting those best practices by providing unified management capabilities to optimise visibility into the diverse virtualised, physical and clustered server environments that the market favours."

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