The research – compiled from interviews with more than 250 IT managers planning to attend the IP Expo event due to take place in London next month –- found that 85.8% and 88% of IT managers, respectively, had virtualisation and data security in their top priorities list for next year.
And just 3% said they believed that IT security issues will stop their organisation from adopting virtualisation.
According to the organisers of IP Expo, the survey demonstrates the strength of the IT managers' desire to adopt virtualisation but also their reservations about the security of the technology and its ability to protect the sensitive data their companies hold.
Interestingly, 57% of respondents said they believe that the roll-out of virtualisation and cloud based technologies will need to wait until security guarantees can be demonstrated.
Despite this, the research suggests this is not bad news for virtualisation vendors, as a hefty 80% of respondents believe that virtualisation will require a revision of enterprise security tools and procedures.
In addition, 81% of professionals surveyed believe that, as a result of this, virtualisation could offer an opportunity to improve their firm's overall data security.
Adam Malik, content director for Imago Techmedia said: "The data security issues surrounding virtualisation are something the entire IT industry is coming together to address."
"The priority is to make sure that this ground breaking technology can meet the needs of companies of all sizes as well as some of the UK's highest risk legal and financial companies", he said.
"Lionel Wilson, IS director of the Woodland Trust, meanwhile, said that his team have now virtualised almost all of the trust's server estate.
This, he said, is because it offers new ways for us to meet challenges of improving hardware utilisation and drive down costs, whilst also reducing the trust's environmental impact and reduces energy consumption by as much as 90%.