Partner Content - The Great Virtualisation Reset: Simplifying Hybrid Infrastructure for AI Readiness

Two-thirds of firms planning virtualisation changes, but only one in twenty say they are ready

Virtualisation, the process of creating virtual versions of physical resources, has long been a stable foundation for enterprise IT, but after decades of stability, the landscape is shifting fast.

Unexpected licensing changes, mandatory bundles, and mounting complexity are driving costs up and slowing innovation, especially as AI workloads surge.

Organisations now face tool sprawl, with resources consumed by complex, fragmented systems no longer suited to their requirements. A lack of interoperability and migration difficulties also mean organisations face vendor lock in. And rising licensing, hypervisor and cloud costs further fuel the need to reevaluate virtualised estates.

In the age of AI, organisations need the ability to move fast, and brittle VM-only operating models simply fall short. They must go beyond a simple tech refresh, rethinking their operating models and where workloads live.

This has resulted in the 'great virtualisation reset,’ an opportunity to shift to ensure future resilience and build a better operating model. Rather than fragmented systems, IT teams are opting for unified platform-centric hybrid operating model to manage VMs, containers and cloud - all in one place.

Virtualisation strategy changes

According to recent research from HPE, more than two thirds of enterprises are planning changes to their virtualisation strategy within the next two years. However, only 5% said they are fully ready. Budget constraints (28%), technical complexity (24%), and migration risk (21%) followed closely by skills gap (20%) are cited as the top barriers slowing progress of the great VM reset.

In order to close this gap between ambition and reality, organisations need guidance from strategic partners as they assess new virtualisation alternatives.

How HPE can help

HPE enables enterprises to modernise virtualised environments, transforming IT operations for AI readiness, stronger resilience and lower operational risk through a unified hybrid cloud operating model.

HPE’s open, unified solutions offer one control plane, agnostic by design, that enables organisations to manage applications across VMs and containers located on prem or in the public cloud. Workloads run where they make the most sense and organisations can benefit from unified control across hybrid environments, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), strengthened governance, and freedom from vendor lock-in.

For example, HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software simplifies virtualisation by unifying provisioning, automation, and governance across VMware and HPE hypervisors—empowering organisations to reduce complexity, avoid vendor lock-in, and dramatically lower virtualisation costs.

HPE also provides essential guidance for future-proofing virtualised estates, offering organisations assistance in planning, designing, and migrating away from legacy virtualisation.

“We’re seeing enterprise leaders reassess longstanding IT assumptions to balance cost predictability, AI readiness and performance. This isn’t just a rush to rip and replace, but a deliberate shift toward a more flexible and simplified operating model,” said Brian Gruttadauria, CTO of Hybrid Cloud at HPE. “What the data makes clear is that AI readiness now depends on how well virtualisation evolves. Our role is to help customers modernise by closing the gap between AI ambition and operational reality.”

This article is sponsored by HPE.