(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- IT security solutions provider Symantec (www.symantec.com) announced on Monday it has released the findings of its 2011 Virtualization and Evolution to the Cloud Survey which explored how organizations plan to move business-critical initiatives to virtual and hybrid cloud computing environments.
The report comes a couple weeks after Symantec issued its May MessageLabs Intelligence Report on Tuesday that finds spammers are establishing their own fake URL-shortening services to redirect URLs
The survey highlighted topics including server, client, and storage virtualization, storage as a service, and hybrid/private cloud technologies.
The results show disparities between expectations and reality as enterprises deploy these solutions.
According to the results, CEOs and CFOs cite reliability, security, availability and performance concerns as the main challenges with moving business-critical applications into virtual or cloud environments.
The survey is based on research compiled in April by Applied Research, who surveyed more than 3,700 IT and C-level professionals responsible for IT needs at small, medium, and large enterprises, all around the world.
"Cloud computing represents a major shift within IT - changing from a traditional IT delivery to a service-provider model. Moving to the cloud is a complex evolution for many companies and it's essential that IT and executives are aligned on initiatives," said John Magee, vice president of virtualization and cloud solutions at Symantec. "Virtualization is an enabler for private and hybrid clouds and our survey shows that planning a seamless move is critical to achieving all the simplicity, affordability and efficiency that these environments have to offer."
The report found that server virtualization was popular, while more than 75 percent of organizations are considering deploying private and hybrid cloud platforms.
Storage virtualization was found to be the most popular technology deployed with 45 and 43 percent of enterprises implementing, while private storage as a service is the least poular technology with 36 percent adopting.
Organizations said their initial goals are in impelementing server, storage, and endpoint virtualization, private storage as a service, and hybrid/private cloud.
Server virtualization projects were most successful, with only a 4 percent average gap between expected and realized goals.
The biggest gaps occurred in scalability, reducing capital expenditures and reducing operating expenditures.
The average shortfall in storage virtualization was 33 percent, with respondents singling out their disappointments in the areas of agility, scalability and reducing operating expenditures.
Other gaps included 26 percent with endpoint/desktop virtualization, and 40 percent with private storage as a service.
These gaps are characteristically found in early stage markets where expectations exceed the reality, but as the virtualization and cloud markets continue to mature, the industry will see those gaps close.
One of the more intriguing findings highlighted in the report is that Canadian businesses are slightly ahead of the industry when it comes to implementing new technologies.
Some 60 percent of Canadian companies are implementing server virtualization, compared to 45 percent globally, while 40 percent of Canadian respondents are moving into the hybrid/private cloud, compared to 35 percent globally.
The report also makes some recommendations on how enterprises can make a smoother transition to the cloud.
These recommendations include ensuring a proper alignment between IT and executives in virtualization and cloud initiatives, implementing virtualization and cloud initiatives as mainstream, comprehensive IT initiatives, leveraging and modernizing an existing infrastructure, and setting realistic expectations as well as tracking results.
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