"A good number of the [IT pros we interviewed] had put virtualization projects on hold for six months to a year to get their storage networking stories straightened out," Burke said. "They realized until they had networked storage that was virtualized appropriately they would not" achieve the benefits of virtualization, such as site recovery.

Security is another potential problem, and one that too many IT pros have ignored, according to Burke. Network managers who routinely set up robust security for physical resources haven't done the same after virtualizing, neglecting to set up virtual firewalls and security zones, Burke said. Even if this doesn't lead to security incidents, it could expose them to regulatory problems, he indicated.

"They were trading a level of assurance and auditability that they used to have for nothing," Burke said. "They could not show that they had not produced an unacceptable level of risk. Their security teams had not been paying close attention.