In the groundbreaking EMA research study “Virtualization; Exposing the Intangible Enterprise,” EMA predicted explosive enterprise-wide growth of virtualization, with growth in application and desktop virtualization set to outpace data center virtualization technologies like server and OS virtualization.

EMA research has also shown that business users and owners – who hold the purse strings to IT budgets – are the key beneficiaries of virtualization. Without doubt, virtualization certainly brings real benefits to business users – but it also can cause them some serious problems too.

This EMA Advisory Note explores in more depth the impact that virtualization can have on these business users, and provides recommendations for IT managers on how to expand the benefits, and minimize potential problems, to deliver a successful virtualization strategy that builds business value, instead of alienating business users.