Federal Government Lagging Behind in Adopting Virtualization
A new report from CDW Government finds that although awareness of virtualization's cost and environmental benefits is widespread in government agencies, only 20 percent are actually putting the technology to good use.
A new report from CDW Government finds that although awareness of virtualization's cost and environmental benefits is widespread in government agencies, only 20 percent are actually putting the technology to good use.
CDW-G's 2009 Federal Virtualization Report surveyed 377 federal IT managers in April about to what extent their agencies have studied or adopted virtualization of servers, storage or clients, and how successful their CIOs have been in spearheading and shepherding virtualization projects.
The results suggest that, while virtualization is certainly on the radar at almost all agencies, a combination of lack of budget and training requirements means the federal government is still several years away from making full use of virtualization technology.
Although 73 percent of the IT pros surveyed said that virtualization was a key tool to reduce overall IT costs and improving efficiency, only 20 percent said their agencies were maximizing its benefits. And although 79 percent of respondents said their agencies have launched a virtualization project, just 50 percent of those -- or 39 percent of the total -- rated the project a success.
Of the three types of projects researched -- server, storage and client virtualization -- server virtualization has made the most inroads, with 28 percent of respondents maintaining their projects or implementing them with "high availability and disaster recovery", and another 31 percent in a lower stage of implementation.
Storage and client virtualization projects were both underway, although a much larger portion of respondents -- 49 and 51 percent, respectively -- were still in the earliest phases of planning for implementation.
The main barriers to quicker and more thorough adoption, the respondents said, were a lack of funding available to implement projects and train staff on the benefits and best practices for virtualization IT infrastructure, as well as concerns about obstacles to implementation from security regulations. Only 20 percent of IT pros surveyed said they had a clear understanding of the potential cost savings of virtualization.
The full report is available for download from CDWG.com.
CDW-G's 2009 Federal Virtualization Report surveyed 377 federal IT managers in April about to what extent their agencies have studied or adopted virtualization of servers, storage or clients, and how successful their CIOs have been in spearheading and shepherding virtualization projects.
The results suggest that, while virtualization is certainly on the radar at almost all agencies, a combination of lack of budget and training requirements means the federal government is still several years away from making full use of virtualization technology.
Although 73 percent of the IT pros surveyed said that virtualization was a key tool to reduce overall IT costs and improving efficiency, only 20 percent said their agencies were maximizing its benefits. And although 79 percent of respondents said their agencies have launched a virtualization project, just 50 percent of those -- or 39 percent of the total -- rated the project a success.
Of the three types of projects researched -- server, storage and client virtualization -- server virtualization has made the most inroads, with 28 percent of respondents maintaining their projects or implementing them with "high availability and disaster recovery", and another 31 percent in a lower stage of implementation.
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Storage and client virtualization projects were both underway, although a much larger portion of respondents -- 49 and 51 percent, respectively -- were still in the earliest phases of planning for implementation.
The main barriers to quicker and more thorough adoption, the respondents said, were a lack of funding available to implement projects and train staff on the benefits and best practices for virtualization IT infrastructure, as well as concerns about obstacles to implementation from security regulations. Only 20 percent of IT pros surveyed said they had a clear understanding of the potential cost savings of virtualization.
The full report is available for download from CDWG.com.
