Researchers have found the use of ITIL-based service management processes and a set of common systems management software tools can make or break enterprise virtualisation programmes.
IDC’s research indicates that as IT organisations ramp their virtual infrastructure environments, there is a mission-critical requirement for more sophisticated management processes and tools.
According to the company’s research director, Mary Johnston Turner, To be successful, organisations expecting to grow their virtualisation environments need to simultaneously invest in appropriate management tools, best practices and automation.
That conclusion has been drawn after a study of 100 North American IT decision makers revealed 79% of organisations with more than 50 virtual machines currently apply or plan to apply ITIL or other best practice process models to managing their virtual infrastructure.
Slightly fewer (70%) of sites with larger virtualisation implementations currently use or plan to deploy common management tools across both physical and virtual environments.
IDC said that larger, more complex virtual infrastructure environments have more sophisticated management requirements, particularly with regard to automation, integration across physical and virtual management processes and tools, and alignment of virtualised infrastructure performance with business priorities.
The research group is just about to publish a report on the subject of management strategy of large-scale virtualisation.
