Virtualization isn’t just for large, enterprise-scale businesses: a nationwide study of Cisco partners revealed that virtualization of one type or another is in place at 77% of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and that’s expected to increase.
Seventy-one percent of survey respondents said they have increased budget allocations for virtualization up to 20% over the next two years, according to a Cisco FlexPod Express Study entitled,“Virtualization at Small and Medium Sized Firms on the Rise.”
Among the study’s key findings:
- 91% of all respondents said that virtualization implementations provide their companies with a competitive advantage over those without
- 96% of those who were already employing virtualization solutions felt they were gaining an advantage
- 71% of those who don’t currently have virtualization in place agreed it could provide them an edge over the competition
The following were identified as virtualization’s top benefits,
- Improved system scalability (61%)
- Lower unit cost for IT (51%)
- Business flexibility (48%)
- IT productivity improvements (44%)
- Better business continuity (37%)
- Reduced energy costs (35%)
- Better client services (24%)
Though widely used and well established, 40% of information workers said they had not heard of server or desktop virtualization, according to a recent Cisco whitepaper. “While the lack of knowledge in the workspace is intriguing, it perhaps says the most about how well IT managers and other high-level executives are integrating virtualization into their companies,” the study’s executive summary says.
“While more publicly known trends such as BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) and cloud computing are dominating headlines, virtualization is creating a more efficient IT department behind the scenes.”
Other highlights of the report include:
- 95% of respondents who have virtualization in place are seeing an immediate impact on efficiency and cost reduction and 96% feel having virtualization gives them a competitive advantage
- Larger companies are making virtualization more of a priority, as 80% of firms with 100 to 500 employees have funds in their IT budget dedicated to virtualization compared to only 50% of firms with less than 100 employees that have dedicated such funding
- Upper and middle management remain divided on the benefits of virtualization, as 70% of upper management believe virtualization has caused a significant impact on efficiency and cost-savings compared to only 45% of middle management who thought this
- Of firms that don’t have virtualization in place, 61% of middle managers said cost stands as the biggest barrier
