Small Business Virtualization Poll GLOBAL RESULTS

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1 Small Business Virtualization Poll GLOBAL RESULTS

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3 CONTENTS Introduction... 4 Methodology... 6 Finding 1: Small businesses have a strong interest in virtualization... 8 Finding 2: Small businesses are still grappling with how to adopt virtualization...10 Finding 3: Perhaps due to the immaturity of this market, Small businesses are neglecting to protect their data and systems in virtual environments...12 Symantec Recommendations...14 Small Business Virtualization Poll 3

4 Small Business Virtualization Poll Global Findings Introduction While large enterprises have embraced virtualization technologies for years, Symantec wanted to investigate the extent of its adoption by small businesses worldwide. The following two major economic and technology trends suggested that the technology may have penetrated the small business market to a great extent by this year. Small Business Adoption Drivers? One, of course, is the world s economic downturn since late Except for continued (but slowing) growth in China and India, most other developed economies suffered negative growth through While the recession would dampen investment in new technologies, the potential cost-savings, scalability and business agility from server virtualization would appear to provide an ROI compelling enough to move forward with it. The second is the relentless fall in technology costs, driven even further down by weak demand. Technologies once out of small businesses budget reach have now become affordable for small businesses. Strong Interest But Still Early Days In a recent survey of more than 650 small businesses worldwide, Symantec found strong interest in virtualization technologies, although deployments within the small business segment are still in their early stages. Key obstacles, like those facing organizations of all sizes, were reported to be budget and staffing concerns. The survey revealed that small businesses interested in the technology appear to be struggling with its adoption in their environments. More than half relied on third-party expertise for help. Most surprising was the discovery of the extensive lack of backup and security among small businesses having deployed virtualized servers. The following report discusses the survey results in fuller detail, provides three key findings and offers recommendations on how small businesses can effectively deploy server virtualization. It also provides a graphical view at the survey data. We invite you to read further and if you have any questions, please contact your Symantec representative or visit us at 4 Small Business Virtualization Poll

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6 METHODOLOGY Symantec commissioned Applied Research to field the Small Business Virtualization Poll in May They contacted a total of 658 small businesses in 28 countries, each with between five and 249 employees. The businesses represented a variety of industries; in each case, the respondent was responsible for computing resources at the company. The poll has a reliability of 95% confidence with +/- 3.8% margin of error.. 6 Small Business Virtualization Poll

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8 FINDING 1 Small businesses have a strong interest in virtualization. Once the sole domain of large enterprises with vast resources, small businesses are starting to see virtualization as a necessary part of their IT infrastructures. Symantec s poll revealed that 70 percent of the small businesses surveyed are considering virtualization. Their interest stems from the anticipated benefits of implementation. Not surprisingly, financial benefits ranked highest among reasons to adopt server virtualization. Reduced capital expense was cited by 70 percent of respondents, while 68 percent said reduced operating expense would drive their decisions to deploy virtualization. The ability to use fewer servers for the same number of applications was the third most important reason for virtualization, cited by 67 percent of those surveyed. Related to that, ranking fourth is the need to improve the scalability of the servers. Together these reflect the need for small businesses to get more value out of their existing server infrastructure. Doing so, of course, will hold the line on capital and operating expenses. Small businesses surveyed also see server virtualization as a means to improving their disaster-recovery preparedness. This implies their awareness of how virtualization can provide a full mirror of their primary systems without the capital or operating costs of having a hardware-based duplicate. While the IT capabilities of small businesses are typically hard-pressed to meet the ever-growing demands of their operations and employees for greater productivity and efficiency, clearly they are becoming aware of the potential of virtualization technologies to help meet those demands. What do the numbers say? 70% are Considering Virtualization 8 Small Business Virtualization Poll

9 Top 3 Reasons for Virtualization Reducing Capital Expenses Reducing Operating Expenses Ability to use fewer servers for the same number of applications Small Business Virtualization Poll 9

10 FINDING 2 Small businesses are still grappling with how to adopt virtualization. Despite the 70 percent of small businesses showing an interest in virtualization, its adoption among the segment is early-stage. Of those small businesses, 10 percent have deployed virtualized servers, and another 17 percent are now doing so. This leaves 43 percent in technology trials or discussions. Among small businesses discussing or implementing virtualized servers, only 37 percent are at least discussing virtualizing productivity applications, such as and calendar. Meanwhile, only 24 percent are at least discussing virtualizing business-critical applications such as CRM. When asked about the challenges in server virtualization, small businesses said the top three were performance, backup, and security and patch management. These reflect concerns about having the resources to manage virtualization after deployment. Similarly, other challenges included system architecture and design issues, as well as workload capacity and planning issues. Nearly a third of small businesses not now planning virtualization cite lack of experience as a factor. Concerns over security and reliability may be affecting which applications businesses virtualize. Among small businesses not now considering server virtualization, these two concerns were listed as factors by about a third of this group of respondents. This insight suggests why they may be reluctant to virtualize business-critical applications. What do the numbers say? 10% are Deployed Virtualization 10 Small Business Virtualization Poll

11 Top 3 Challenges 60% Performance 56% Backup 56% Security and Patch Management Small Business Virtualization Poll 11

12 FINDING 3 Perhaps due to the immaturity of this market, small businesses are neglecting to protect their data and systems in virtual environments Remarkably, this survey revealed the great extent to which small businesses do not sufficiently protect their data and systems with regular backups and security safeguards. For example, just 15 percent of small businesses respondents always back up their virtualized servers. In contrast, 23 percent either back them up infrequently or not at all. Why not? Fifty-three percent cited budgetary issues, while 23 percent said staffing issues were at fault. Incomplete security practices are apparently also common among small businesses. On average, only 40 percent of virtualized servers for each small business deploying them are completely secured. Twenty percent are somewhat or completely unsecured. As with lack of sufficient backups, budgetary problems were cited as the main reason by 49 percent of survey respondents. Thirty-five percent cited staffing issues. Of the small businesses that consider all of their virtualized servers to be somewhat or completely secured, 78 percent have no antivirus protection installed, 48 percent don t have a firewall and 74 percent have not implemented any form of endpoint protection. Based on these results, lack of data protection in small businesses virtual environments should be addressed in both current and planned virtual server deployments. What do the numbers say? Uneven safeguards 78% Don t use Antivirus 74% Forgo Endpoint protection 48% Don t have a firewall 12 Small Business Virtualization Poll

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14 Symantec Recommendations Define a virtualization strategy: Work with a consultant to develop a strategy. Proactively develop guidelines and assess your data protection and security needs. Determine if you should move to the cloud for these services. Once you have a strategy, develop a plan and stick to it. Secure your virtual environments: Consider what security solutions you need to secure your virtual environment, including a firewall, antivirus, and endpoint security. Make sure you have established security practices as an additional layer of protection. Protect your data: Have a simplified approach to backup. Implement a solution that protects both physical and virtual environments. Consider a data deduplication solution to save space and time. 14 Small Business Virtualization Poll

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