Now, Play Nicely

Technical woes rank higher—to be expected when CIOs deploy a new technology such as virtualization. However, the politics pain many of you. Remember, virtualization not only asks people to cede some control over their physical server kingdoms, but also asks IT experts from different realms to work more closely together. "Virtualization success depends on tight cooperation between server, storage, network and security teams," says Burton Group senior analyst Chris Wolf. "Getting divisions that operate as independent silos to work together presents a very difficult challenge." Strong executive support, says Wolf, is crucial.

Ensuring Application Speed a Must

Efficiency won’t save IT from a big black eye if you've put too many VMs on one physical server and key business apps run too slowly. CIOs understand this danger full well: Nearly two-thirds of you call balancing server workloads or maintaining application service levels one of your three biggest challenges to success. But those nasty political issues loom large, as does the difficulty of measuring ROI on your efforts.