Only 5% of Enterprises Ready for Virtualization

More than two-thirds of global enterprises are planning significant changes to their virtualization strategies within the next two years, yet only 5% say they are fully prepared to execute those changes, according to a new survey by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

The study, which surveyed nearly 400 organizations worldwide, highlights mounting pressure on IT leaders as artificial intelligence workloads increase operational complexity and cloud costs. Enterprises are rethinking whether their infrastructure can keep pace with AI performance demands while maintaining cost predictability.

While licensing changes have disrupted the virtualization landscape, the shift is not being driven primarily by pricing concerns. Just 4% of respondents identified licensing costs as the main catalyst for change. Instead, organizations are prioritizing hybrid operating models and AI readiness.

Budget constraints (28%), technical complexity (24%), migration risks (21%) and skills shortages (20%) emerged as the top barriers slowing what HPE describes as a broad virtualization reset.

Rather than replacing platforms outright, many enterprises are opting for phased modernization. About 57% of respondents said they are taking a gradual approach to future-proof IT environments, with hybrid cloud emerging as the preferred architecture for supporting AI workloads.

Deployment patterns already reflect diversified infrastructure footprints: 78% of organizations provision workloads in public cloud…