Virtualization Key to Business Success, Survey Finds

IT market research firm AMI-Partners says 2009 was the turning point in which medium-size businesses moved fully into the virtualization space. The survey found the percentage of U.S. MBs that consider server virtualization strategically important has increased from 46 percent to 75 percent.

Melissa Chong, manager of managed services at AMI, said 2009 was the turning point for server virtualization usage among U.S. medium businesses, accelerated by the affects of the economic downturn as midmarket CIOs and IT managers looked for ways to cut IT costs and boost asset utilization. "Server virtualization can yield many benefits for a midmarket firm. At the most basic level, it improves utilization and reduces the number of physical servers, while at the same time, reducing electricity and cooling costs," she said. "In addition, U.S. MBs become more responsive to users' needs by reducing application deployment and migration times."