IT management software and solutions specialist CA Technologies announced the results of an independently conducted research survey on the state of IT automation. The survey of 460 IT decision-makers from medium and large enterprises found that more than 60 percent are disappointed in virtualization's cost savings. Moreover, respondents said they believe that automation plays a key role in reaping the financial benefits of virtualization and cloud computing.

Nearly all (95 percent) respondents have implemented, are piloting, or plan to implement virtualization in their organization. A large majority cited reducing costs (85 percent) and increasing server utilization (84 percent) as the primary reasons to deploy virtualization. However, 63 percent of respondents stated that they have not experienced as much savings as expected, and five percent said the complexities of virtualization had actually introduced new costs.

"Virtualization is a bean counter's dream, but it can be an operational nightmare," said respondent Ian Watts, senior technical manager of BT Americas, Inc. "Change management is a huge overhead, as any changes need to be accepted by all applications and users sharing the same virtualization kit. While many organizations are seeing benefits from virtualization, such as reduced hardware spending and improved server utilization, these benefits often get overshadowed by the lack of productivity improvements in data center staffing and operations."

The survey indicated there is a direct correlation between IT service automation in a virtualized environment and cost-savings. For example, 44 percent of survey respondents who said most of their server provisioning processes are automated report they have significantly reduced costs through virtualization. Conversely, 48 percent of those who said the complexities of virtualization have introduced new costs also said most of their server provisioning processes are manual.

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