Happy Days Are Here Again

Few ROI calculations please 85 percent of CIOs. The ROI on server virtualization does, even though you're struggling to measure it precisely. Today, virtualization helps many CIOs reduce costs on a massive scale while improving flexibility to the business. That's been the experience of Credit Suisse CIO Tom Sanzone, whose efforts we profiled earlier this year. CIOs in enterprises large and small tell the same story: It is easy to wow the business side with the returns. No wonder you're smiling.

Payback on the Desktop Takes Longer to Measure

Sixty percent of you are pleased with the payback on virtual desktops, but a notable 27 percent say you're just not sure. Perhaps that's not surprising, as Forrester Senior Research Analyst Natalie Lambert notes, given that desktop virtualization is more complex to optimize than server or storage virtualization. Also, analysts say, calculating the ROI of virtual desktops accurately depends on having good figures on pre-virtualization PC costs. Meanwhile, desktop virtualization is also the newest effort of the three at most enterprises, which means it may be too early to measure returns accurately.