Research shows the implementation of virtualisation in SA is slower than in other Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, due to various local factors.
Speaking at ITWeb's Virtualisation and Cloud Computing conference, Annalise Olivier, IT advisory senior manager for KPMG, cited research by HP from 2008. It said 56% of companies in EMEA have implemented virtualisation of some sort. “In SA, that percentage is lower.”
She said SA is slower to adopt virtualisation for a number of reasons. One is the exorbitant bandwidth costs, and another is that many see it as a grudge purchase, Olivier explained. “The IT department wants to implement it, but management doesn't want to pay.”
What makes this more difficult for companies is that it's hard to measure return on investment for cloud deployments.
However, she added that it's not all bad news. “Microsoft SA expects organisations adopting virtualisation to double over the next few years.”
Saving money isn't the only reason companies should deploy virtualisation. IT departments want to virtualise for reasons such as improved uptime and scaling, and the business side wants agility and business continuity. “I believe there's a lot of scope for growth in SA for virtualisation in SMEs,” said Olivier.
She added that the recently released King III report on corporate governance highlighted another reason companies are looking to virtualise - sustainability.
However, when virtualising, Olivier noted that many companies fall short on software asset management (SAM). “When you move to a virtual infrastructure you need to think about SAM.”
She cited research by KPMG on cloud computing, which showed 86% of respondents lacked complete and accurate information about software deployments and entitlements.
“Of the 86% of respondents, 59% have limited control over their software assets and lack SAM business processes and tools.”
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