Too many still don’t anticipate storage impact on virtualisation costs

That's among key findings from a survey among 450 IT operations across North America and Europe by storage virtualisation software firm DataCore Software. Its data also reveals that nearly half (43%) of those implementing virtualised environments had not anticipated the impact that storage would have on their server and desktop virtualisation costs – or had not started a virtualisation project because storage-related costs seemed too high. Other findings show that: of those that have deployed server virtualisation, 66% cite substantial increases in storage costs as the biggest problem they are facing; nearly 40% say the storage infrastructure is either slowing application performance or limiting its availability; and more than 20% indicate that business continuity is now more, not less, difficult. George Teixeira, president and CEO of DataCore Software, also says that more than half (56%) now realise that consolidation creates I/O bottlenecks that prevent them from moving to the next level of virtualisation. "Unanticipated storage costs, availability concerns, and performance bottlenecks are the most critical factors bringing server consolidation and desktop virtualisation projects to a standstill," comments Teixeira. "IT organisations in mid size and large firms have turned to storage virtualisation software solutions like DataCore's SANsymphony-V to overcome these operational and financial challenges by better leveraging existing storage assets and standard practices," he adds. They're doing so for a range of reasons, according to the same survey: nearly one in four (22%) IT administrators feel locked-in to their storage hardware provider; one third have underestimated the costs that server/desktop virtualisation would have on their storage budget; 41% are saddled with two or more different storage systems from the same vendor; and more than 60% cannot manage their storage resources as a single pool. Meanwhile, Teixeira reveals that 95% of respondents say they are likely to deploy server and desktop virtualisation software from VMware, Microsoft or Citrix in the coming year. He also says that, while Microsoft Hyper-V adoption is growing, according to respondents, VMware is still top of mind. Nearly 65% plan to deploy VMware, while only 10% identify Hyper-V as their platform of choice.