According to a recent Vizioncore Virtualization Review (VVR) survey, it is clear that executives are concerned with today’s current financial situation and the rippling effects it could have on their IT investments.

 

Vizioncore Inc., the market leader in server virtualization management solutions to help safeguard and optimize virtualized environments, recently completed its most recent quarterly VVR survey: “IT’s Response To The Global Financial Climate.” The company received over 650 responses to the VVR that provided industry insight on how current economic conditions are affecting IT spending. Vizioncore found that with quick return-on-investment (ROI) being of utmost importance to IT organizations, certain technologies such as virtualization will be adopted faster due to the potential for immediate cost savings.

“With 66 percent of respondents believing rapid ROI from any IT investment is now a greater priority, it’s clear there’s an incentive to implement technologies that can deliver tangible results in the near term,” said Grace Krokidas, Vizioncore’s director of worldwide marketing. “Virtualization is one such strategy where the benefits are proven: reduced IT maintenance and support costs, more efficient use of hardware, lower licensing costs, the ability to scale business to create environments on-demand, and streamlined processes for creating disaster recovery servers. Strangely enough, the current financial climate can serve as a catalyst for users to adopt virtualization technologies more rapidly than they would have otherwise.”

Executive Perspective, Key Drivers and The Business Benefits

The economic struggle around the world is certainly top-of-mind, but the survey revealed that even more important for survey respondents was that they were confident that they were investing in technologies that boost productivity and efficiency in their organizations. The VVR survey asked the respondents if they felt the global financial situation has affected their IT spend. Almost half (48 percent) responded that there has been some effect on their IT spend while 26 percent said there has been a significant effect. Twenty percent indicated that there’s been no effect yet on their IT spend.

The survey also identified that forty-one percent of the respondents believe the financial crisis is putting a greater priority on implementing virtualization technologies. “The survey provides us with valuable insight on what the drivers are for investments in virtualization,” said Krokidas. “What we are seeing is that while end users are more focused on keeping their costs down, they will still be directing resources to those technologies that they believe are going to improve their business.”

The VVR survey also asked if the respondents believe virtualization plays an important role in their business continuity strategy, and an overwhelming 94 percent said yes. When asked which benefit of virtualization would be the most important to their IT strategy, 51 percent selected disaster recovery/business continuity as vital to their business while 44 percent selected overall cost savings as being the essential link for a successful IT strategy.

When asked which technologies respondents expect to make an investment in over the next six months, the top choice of the respondents at 63 percent was virtualization, followed by 58 percent investing in storage and 55 percent indicating disaster recovery/business continuity solutions. Respondents also selected server hardware (50 percent) and business applications (40 percent) while 39 percent indicated spending on IT security would be a focus. Thirty-five percent surveyed chose networking.

About the Vizioncore Virtualization Review™ (VVR™)

The Vizioncore Virtualization Review is a quarterly survey designed to understand the market demand and usage of virtualization technologies on a global basis. The survey is sent to approximately 20,000 companies that have invested in virtualization solutions, and results are posted on the Vizioncore website. For more information on the VVR survey and to download a copy of the VVR Survey Industry Brief titled “Current Financial Climate Drives Virtualization Technologies as Lead IT Investment in 2009,” visit http://www.vizioncore.com/Articles/IndustryBriefs/FinancialClimateStudyIB.pdf