Most enterprises unprepared for HPE's virtualisation reset

Hewlett Packard Enterprise research suggests most large organisations are not ready for major shifts in virtualisation, even as many revisit infrastructure plans under pressure from AI projects, cost uncertainty and hybrid operations.

In a survey of nearly 400 enterprise IT leaders worldwide, only 5% said their organisations are fully ready for what HPE calls the "Great Virtualization Reset". Yet 67% plan significant changes to their virtualisation strategy within the next two years.

Virtualisation remains a core layer of enterprise computing, underpinning many private cloud platforms and enabling workload consolidation across on‑premise systems and cloud environments. For many IT teams, it is also the operational foundation for running AI workloads alongside existing business applications.

Readiness gap

The survey highlights a mismatch between ambition and execution, with financial and operational constraints slowing progress. Budget limits were the most cited barrier (28%), followed by technical complexity (24%). Migration risk came next (21%), with skills gaps close behind (20%).

HPE framed the shift as broader than a response to licensing changes in the virtualisation market. Only 4% cited licensing costs as the primary driver. Instead, the research points to an operating model reassessment rather than a simple swap of one hypervisor for another.

More than half of respondents (57%) said they are taking a phased approach. That reflects the disruption and risk of moving large virtual machine estates, updating management tooling and changing operating processes, as well as dependencies on existing backup regimes, security controls and governance models.

Hybrid reality

The results describe a complex deployment landscape across public cloud, private infrastructure and edge locations. Respondents reported that 78% of "provisions" are in the public cloud, 61% in virtualised clusters, 48% in private cloud and 32% at the edge. The figures suggest enterprises run workloads across multiple environments and often use more than one operating model at the same time.

That mix shapes how IT teams assess next steps. AI projects can introduce new requirements for data handling, performance consistency and scaling, while increasing focus on operational controls such as cyber recovery and governance across platforms.

Operational priorities

Respondents also ranked operational features as important when planning virtualisation and private cloud strategies. Unified backup and cyber recovery was rated very important or business critical by 70% of enterprises. Cross‑platform governance followed at 61%, while integrated observability and AIOps was cited by 55%.

These priorities suggest management tooling and resilience controls are central to modernisation discussions, and that enterprises want a consistent operational layer across mixed environments-particularly when workloads can shift between public cloud and private infrastructure.

Brian Gruttadauria, CTO of Hybrid Cloud at HPE, linked virtualisation planning to AI readiness and cost predictability.

"We're seeing enterprise leaders reassess longstanding IT assumptions to balance cost predictability, AI readiness and performance. This isn't just a rush to rip and replace, but a deliberate shift toward a more flexible and simplified operating model," Gruttadauria said.

Customer examples

HPE cited customer experiences it said reflect the broader change in approach. Danfoss described its virtualisation strategy as part of a wider operational shift and pointed to HPE Private Cloud Enterprise and HPE Morpheus Software.

"From the outset, we saw a change in virtualization strategy as a chance to future-proof our operations both for simplified cloud operations and the AI era," said Sune T. Baastrup, CIO at Danfoss. "As part of our HPE Private Cloud Enterprise solution, we benefit from the HPE Morpheus Software, which enables us to run our environments-from data centers to factory floors-with simplicity, agility, and reliability. It's the kind of stable IT foundation a global industrial business needs."

Thrive, an IT services provider, also pointed to demand for predictability and operational control in virtualisation decisions.

"Control and predictability in virtualization now matter more than ever," said Scott Steele, COO at Thrive. "Our customers rely on us to architect agile IT environments built for change. By partnering with HPE, we can provide reliable virtualization, cost optimization, as well as observability, management, and the right hybrid operating model to meet each customer's unique needs while preparing their infrastructure for what's next."

The findings suggest many enterprises expect their virtualisation strategies to change materially in the near term, with operational tooling, governance and recovery features among the requirements likely to shape vendor selections and platform roadmaps.