Issue link: http://hub-fr.insight.com/i/532074
8 There are quite a few factors driving this trend toward the cloud. Uptime Institute's 2012 Data Center Industry Study reports that 27 per cent of companies are looking for cost reductions, 23 per cent are motivated by an increase in scalability, 13 per cent cite pressure from customers or users to improve access to data, and 13 per cent are trying to build a more agile, responsive company around a cloud-based data center. There's clearly some momentum here. Yet IT profes- sionals are cautious by nature. Some look at cloud-based data center solutions and wonder about offsite security, deployment time, change management issues and other unknowns. Their default mindset is, 'We're getting by – why take a chance?' Seven Good Reasons to Virtualize Virtualization is designed for this world of fast-growing data and cloud-connected businesses. Today, a majority of the world's data centers have at least some degree of virtualization in place, and for good reasons: It makes them more competitive and helps them manage their cloud-based workloads. Here are seven factors that together make a business case for virtualization. ✓ Lower costs: To run a lot of servers, you'll need to buy a lot of power and remove a lot of heat. Add to that the cost of buying, installing, upgrading and maintaining servers and the costs can quickly spiral out of control. Businesses that go virtual are responsible for less physical hardware and the expenses that go with it.