The number of organisations using virtualisation technology is set to rise to 93.8 per cent over the next 12 months, research shows.

According to analyst Gartner, virtualisation is now one of the fastest adopted tools within networks, storage or server implementations.

Virtualisation technology allows for the central management of virtually pooled IT resources.

Gartner says it will increase from its current usage rate of 59.4 per cent among large enterprises, to 93.8 per cent.

This trend has spawned the concept of computing as a 'utility' that is accessed through virtualised resources.

Just 6.3 per cent of delegates at a Gartner conference on utility computing said they had no plans to implement virtualisation in their data centres over the next two years.

Some 40.6 per cent of delegates have already deployed server virtualisation technology, 37.5 per cent are using it for storage and 28.1 per cent have applied it to their networks.

Thomas Meyer, European enterprise server solutions programme director from analyst IDC has also predicts double-digit growth in this market, rising from 35 per cent to 60 per cent or more in the next couple of years.

Gartner maintains that virtualisation could achieve 'massive savings' by helping companies to move to 'real-time' infrastructure, where companies can react spontaneously to changing demands on IT from the business.