Thirty five per cent of servers bought in in Europe last year are being virtualised and 52 per cent of those bought this year are expected to follow, according to research by analyst IDC.

The analyst reported that between 2007 and 2008 the adoption of virtualisation strategies among the installed server base has risen from 46 per cent to 54 per cent of users.

And 54 per cent of those not using virtualisation plan to do so in the next 18 months.

However, 33 per cent of large businesses say use of virtualisation is limited by their application vendors' licensing, while 23 per cent of all virtualisation users say this licensing is not meeting their needs.

The race to virtualise servers is throwing up new challenges, said Chris Ingle, consulting and research director at IDC's Systems Group.

"Virtualisation use has exploded since our last survey of the European market," he said. "Both large organisations and smaller businesses are using the technology for a wider range of applications and for business critical projects.

"As use of virtualisation grows, the challenges around managing complexity, finding skills and software licensing become more apparent."