Global business consulting firm, Protiviti compiled the survey aimed to assess what IT leaders found to be lacking within their environment. Seeing a 15% priority increase from the previous year, virtualization ranked #1 with a resounding 86% of the participants listing the solution as a “significant priority” in regards to cost reduction and simplification.

Cost Savings

Virtualization’s magnetic pull can be attributed to its dual purpose in enhancing value while slashing costs. Boosted efficiency and productivity spawn from a reduction in power usage, operating costs, and hardware.

Security

Aside from its incredible cost saving factor, virtualization is also playing a large role in strengthening security and disaster recovery capabilities. By cutting down hardware, virtualization can simplify deployment, maintenance, and patching. Additionally, with the reduction in number of servers, virtualization consequently creates a smaller attack surface - enhancing your security simply by size. Virtualization also grants administrators the ability to record all activity, making it easier to monitor and audit activity on the host. Learn more about virtualization’s security benefits here.

Other Survey Results

Additionally topping the priority list was virus/malware/advanced threat detection/eradication, data breach and privacy laws, and enterprise architecture. Ranking the top of IT’s transformation objectives were cost/simplification (64%), new functionality (such as mobility, new products, etc.), service assurance, and regulatory/compliance.

TOP 10 IT PRIORITIES FOR 2015 (INCLUDING TIES)