REDMOND, Wash., April 29 -- Banking institutions in the United States and United Kingdom are using a number of virtualization technologies as a means to help centralize deployment and management of applications, simplify IT infrastructure, and improve overall business continuity of IT systems, reports a new survey released today by Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft's "Virtualization in Banking Survey 2008," conducted by independent, Washington, D.C.-based research firm KRC Research, shows that the majority (58 percent) of large, tier-one banks are already implementing virtualization across multiple aspects of their IT infrastructures, including application (61 percent), networking (54 percent), machine operating systems (48 percent) and presentation (27 percent).

A form of technology around since the 1960s, virtualization is the act of isolating or unbinding one computing resource from another. Although virtualization is commonly thought of as occurring within datacenters and servers, virtualization technologies are being applied across multiple aspects of a bank's IT infrastructure, including presentation, application, operating system, storage and network.

"Banks realize the impact virtualization can have on operations, from the data center to the desktop, and how it should be embraced as part of an enterprisewide infrastructure strategy," said Rich Feldmann, managing director of the U.S. Financial Services Group at Microsoft. "Virtualization helps create the foundation for innovative banking applications and channels by producing an agile infrastructure. While banks are known as early adopters of technology, this survey indicates that more than one-third are still on the sidelines waiting for greater value and ease of use before adopting."

The survey was conducted in February 2008 and includes responses from 100 technology decision-makers in the United States and United Kingdom with IT management responsibilities over a region or at the enterprise level for retail banks with assets of more than $25 billion. Key findings included these:

• Fifty-three percent of those implementing virtualization reported that it makes it easier to centralize deployment and manage applications, and an equal number reported that it produces cost savings -- while 51 percent reported that virtualization makes it easier to respond to issues such as failures of applications or systems.

• Saving space (46 percent), making it easier to provide security (46 percent) and saving energy (34 percent) also ranked as significant drivers for the technology.

• Among those who are currently using virtualization, 95 percent use it in regional or national headquarters, such as in data centers, while 53 percent use it within branch offices; nearly one-third (32 percent) of those who are planning to use virtualization say they will definitely or probably use it in branches.

• The most frequently mentioned type of branch where virtualization has been deployed is community branches (82 percent), followed by premium or showcase branches (31 percent), co-located branches such as those within stores (28 percent), and branches-in-a-box (13 percent), such as mobile branches used on college campuses and for events.

The wide variety of virtualization reported in the survey may be a direct result of increasing market pressure on banks to reduce costs, innovate and manage IT resources more centrally. For today's major retail bank, machine operating system virtualization is becoming a foundation for a dynamic and responsive datacenter; application virtualization is changing how banks manage line-of-business software applications; desktop virtualization is empowering workers by enabling them to run multiple operating systems on a single desktop; and presentation virtualization allows bank employees to seamlessly execute an application from a remote computer.

"Virtualization helps make more effective use of existing hardware investments and significantly improve IT agility," said Kathleen Khirallah, managing director and practice leader of global banking at TowerGroup. "These emerging technologies are helping today's bank compete more effectively in an ever-changing market by helping people anticipate and respond to business challenges and opportunities rapidly and effectively."

KRC Research conducted Microsoft's Virtualization in Banking Survey 2008 in February and garnered responses from 100 technology decision-makers who have IT management responsibilities over a region or across the enterprise for retail banks with assets over $25 billion. Each respondent is a user, application manager, developer, evaluator, recommender or authorizer of purchase decisions for hardware and software related to technical computing. Full survey results are available at www.microsoft.com/financialservices.

Microsoft provides a broad set of solutions for small, midmarket and large customers to virtualize desktops, consolidate servers in the datacenter and establish more cost-effective business continuity plans via virtualization. Customers can optimize their desktop infrastructure with Microsoft software, allowing them to unbind different computing resources, virtualize desktops or applications, streamline deployments, centralize management and ease application compatibility issues. Microsoft offers infrastructure virtualization software as part of the Windows platform, such as Hyper-V and Terminal Services available within Windows Server 2008, along with a comprehensive management platform, Microsoft System Center, to manage both virtual and physical infrastructure and applications. To learn more, visit www.microsoft.com/virtualization.

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Source: Microsoft Corp.