The promise that virtualisation technology can increase utilisation rates of servers and improve business flexibility has led to widespread adoption of the technology, reports systems management vendor CA. Yet few CIOs are able to adequately measure the success of implementations.

CA’s Global Virtualisation Survey notes that 39% of organisations with 500 or more employees have now implemented some level of server virtualisation technology. Yet of those companies, fewer than half (44%) have been able to establish the tangible benefits of introducing the technology.

The principle index by which companies are attempting to measure the success of deployments include return on investment (ROI) and cost-savings, neither of which are proving satisfactory, reports CA. Nearly a third of those organisations having deployed server virtualisation said that they have either failed to realise ROI, or have no idea if they have realised any ROI at all.

Nevertheless, most enterprises remain unperturbed by these teething problems. CA says that 71% of organisations that have moved ahead with virtualisation have deployed, or still plan to deploy, multiple server virtualisation technologies. And the number of organisations virtualising their server estates is predicted to grow 20% globally over the next 18 months.