CIOs to remain focused on virtualization and private cloud

CIOs will remain focused on virtualization and private cloud this year, according to a new research by IT monitoring firm Opsview. The report indicated that 64 per cent of the respondents identified virtualization as the primary focus for investment in 2013. The other top initiatives for CIOs this year will be private cloud and IT monitoring according to the report.

According to the report, VMware continues to dominate the virtualization space with over 54 per cent of enterprises choosing them as the company preferred vendor, especially in the area of private cloud. However, Microsoft’s market share is also growing steadily at over 18 per cent. At the same time, almost a quarter of respondents claimed that over 75 per cent of their entire IT infrastructure is now virtualized.

There is also a growing trend in enterprises to opt Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions. Already 25 per cent have already deployed Cloud with a further 35 per cent planning to invest in IaaS in the coming quarters. Amazon remains the clear leader in the IaaS space. When asked to identify their existing cloud service providers, 56 per cent of respondents chose AWS, while only 19 per cent selected Rackspace, according to the report.

“As enterprises complete their virtualization projects and turn toward private cloud initiatives, there will be significant opportunity for Cloud IaaS technology vendors in the future. This trend is a massive opportunity for Opsview as it builds out its cloud monitoring support for key platforms from VMware, Microsoft and Amazon,” said Tom Callway, Senior analyst at Opsview.

 The report that was based on contributions by CIOs and primary decision-makers at large and midsize enterprises in North America, Europe and Asia PAcific, also indicated that security is still the primary concern for those adopting private cloud technologies, with cost and performance concerns largely addressed by the leading vendors.