While a significant volume of market research has been published on the general use and benefits of server virtualization, much less information is available about the specific impact of this technology on storage infrastructure strategies, purchase plans and management priorities. As a result, it is has often been difficult for IT users and vendors to fully anticipate the changes to storage requirements, costs and best practices that are likely to result from server virtualization implementations. To better understand the relationship between the growing use of server virtualization and evolving enterprise and SMB storage strategies, Enterprise Strategy Group undertook an in-depth global survey of current and planned x86 server virtualization customers. Note that this survey was designed to obtain insights from a very knowledgeable and experienced group of leading-edge server virtualization customers and prospects. It was not meant to represent the broader IT market as a whole. Specifically, ESG’s survey investigated:

• If and how the use of server virtualization is changing storage infrastructure and capacity requirements.
• Whether server virtualization is driving net new storage system purchases.
• The types of storage technologies that are being purchased specifically to support virtual server environments.
• How the mix of storage technologies used to support virtual server environments will change over time.
• The storage technology attributes that are most compelling to customers looking to support virtual server environments.
• The major storage-related benefits and challenges and associated with virtual server support.
• The storage management capabilities that users feel are most necessary for supporting virtual server environments.
• How server virtualization is affecting backup and business continuity/disaster recovery strategies.
• The extent to which storage virtualization solutions are being deployed in conjunction with server virtualization environments.

To gather data for this report, ESG surveyed 706 IT and business professionals from public- and private-sector organizations in North America, Western Europe and Asia. For more information on the contents and findings of this report, please download the executive summary below.

Executive Summary

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