Server and storage virtualisation are the most mature with 45 and 43% of enterprises implementing, when more than 75% of organisations are discussing private and hybrid cloud deployments, according to a new research by Symantec.

Private Storage-as-a-Service is the least mature with 36% of them adopting, said the report, which surveyed topics including server, client, and storage virtualisation, storage-as-a-service, and hybrid/private cloud technologies.

CEOs and CFOs are concerned with moving business-critical applications into virtual or cloud environments due to challenges including reliability, security, availability and performance.

The revelation of gaps between expectations and reality indicate that organisations are still learning what these technologies are capable of and how to overcome the new challenges they bring with them.

The survey based on more than 3,700 respondents from 35 countries worldwide said server virtualisation projects were most successful, with only a 4% average gap between expected and realised goals.

The average shortfall in storage virtualisation was 33%, with disappointments coming in agility, scalability and reducing operating expenditures.

Respondents reported an average gap between expected and realised goals of 26% with endpoint/desktop virtualization, citing disappointments in new endpoint deployment, application delivery and application compatibility.

Seventy-seven percent of organisations are considering private Storage-as-a-Service, but these projects are challenging to implement and fall short of expectations by 37%.

Organisations more or less follow the same path while investing in virtualisation and hybrid/private cloud technologies.

They start virtualising less critical applications such as test and development environments and progressing to more important applications such as email and collaboration; line of business; eCommerce and supply chain; and ERP/CRM.

The survey shows that enterprises who are implementing virtualisation, more than half (59%) plan to virtualise database applications in the next 12 months, while 55% plan to virtualise web applications, and 47% plan to virtualise email and calendar applications, and 41% plan to virtualise ERP applications.

An average of just 33% of business-critical applications such as ERP, accounting and CRM are in hybrid/private cloud environments, the survey revealed.

More than half of respondents (56%) said storage costs somewhat or significantly increased with server virtualisation.

Seventy-six percent of enterprises who have implemented server virtualisation indicated that security was a somewhat/extremely large factor in deciding about placing business-critical applications on virtualised servers.

Seventy-eight percent said it was a somewhat/extremely large deciding factor in placing mission-critical applications on virtualised servers.

According to the survey, 46% of CFOs who are implementing hybrid/private clouds are less than "somewhat open" to moving business-critical applications into those environments, while 44% of CEOs are cautious about moving these applications.

Main concerns cited about virtualisation and hybrid cloud deployments are reliability (78%), security (76%), and performance (76%), the report said.

Symantec recommends enterprises which are implementing virtualisation and moving to a cloud computing future to ensure alignment between IT and executives in virtualisation and cloud initiatives.

The security company also recommended that virtualisation and cloud initiatives are most successful when implemented as mainstream, comprehensive IT initiatives, as they involve all aspects of IT .

Symantec also recommend such enterprises to leverage and modernise their existing infrastructure and set realistic expectations and track their results.