Most companies understand the business benefits of virtualisation, but many are still reluctant to embark on large-scale desktop virtualisation projects, according to new research from independent IT consultancy Centralis.

The firm found that, while a third of UK companies have already virtualised at least 60 per cent of their server infrastructure, the majority have virtualised fewer than 10 per cent of their desktops.

"The biggest barrier to adoption is that virtualisation is traditionally driven by server teams in datacentres, whereas when you talk about virtualising applications and how they talk to each other it becomes more tricky," said Ewen Anderson, managing director of Centralis.

However, Anderson predicted that desktop virtualisation would grow in popularity over the next year as companies look to improve their IT agility.

"If you are thinking of moving from XP to a next-generation platform, and working out how to deliver this to your users, you may see the same sort of savings as with server virtualisation," he said.