Inefficiency of management is preventing virtualisation in enterprise data centres from realising its full potential.

That is according to a new study from Lighthouse Research, which found that few companies are using automated management tools in order to improve efficiency.

Nevertheless, many respondents (45 per cent) have put virtualisation technology in place, and more and more are adopting automated management. Over the coming two years, 72 per cent intend to implement the technology, and 75 per cent intend to improve their data centre efficiency by using automated server monitoring.

"Virtualisation brings opportunities to data centre managers that other technologies have yet to deliver," said Richard Whitehead of Novell, which sponsored the research.

"However, as shown by survey respondents, virtualisation also brings a host of management challenges. To fully reap the benefits of virtualisation, data centre managers need a comprehensive strategy, from virtualisation straight through to automated management tools."