Network monitoring problems hamper growth of virtualisation

Virtualisation and unified communications ratchet up network pressures

The rollout of virtualisation is being hampered by lack of network tools to monitor virtualised environments, according to a global survey.

More than half of firms' applications will be run in virtual environments by 2011, says the survey, carried out by application performance firm Network Instruments, as firms look to consolidate their server estates and increase utilisation rates.

But currently over half of the IT teams polled said they lacked the tools needed to monitor and track these virtual environments.

The Network Instruments survey, which polled 442 chief information officers, network engineers and IT managers worldwide, also suggested that the biggest monitoring challenges in the future apart from virtualisation will be unified communications, cloud computing and IPv6.

"Without sufficient monitoring, virtualisation can create larger problems, halting business processes and causing network teams to waste countless hours troubleshooting," said Ian Cummins, Network Instruments EMEA vice president.

The survey found that 80 per cent of IT and network teams had difficulty in spotting network issues and finding a resolution.

The study also found that the number of firms using video conferencing is likely to double by 2010, and that 65 per cent of network teams do not expect to experience any job redundancies.