Virtualizing the Enterprise: Technologies that Break the Bonds of Bricks and Mortar

The virtualizing enterprise seeks to free the work of the business from ties to specific physical locations. Organizations of all sizes and most industries are virtualizing, with IT as the key enabler for them to reduce and eliminate long-term ties to locations and specific physical assets. Key technologies enabling this shift include mobility, virtual desktops, cloud services, and unified communications to empower collaboration. Indicators of this movement include continued virtualization of IT assets—most servers are now virtual servers, and virtual desktops are proliferating rapidly—and the shift to cloud applications (SaaS, used by more than three-fourths of organizations) and cloud infrastructure (IaaS, used by nearly 20% of organizations). Other key indicators include the increase in mobile-only users and the extension of UC initiatives to mobile platforms.