Across the array of technologies associated with software-defined infrastructure, server virtualization shows the highest enterprise adoption rate at 88 percent, followed by software-defined storage at 37.8 percent, according to a survey by 451 Research.

Adoption of software-defined networking (SDN) is much less widespread, with only about 16.3 percent of respondents reporting implementations.

The findings come from a 451 Research survey of more than 900 IT professionals primarily based in North America and Europe, conducted during December 2015 and January 2016. 451 Research published its results in the recently released “Software-Defined Infrastructure Q4 2015 Report.”

Software-defined storage is generally perceived to be easy to implement, contributing to its healthy adoption. Of large organizations with 1,000 to 9,999 employees, 48.1 percent have already implemented software-defined storage, 451 found. And from a vertical perspective, adoption is highest among financial organizations (47.9 percent) and lowest among manufacturing firms (32.4 percent).

There is a disparity in adoption of software-defined storage between North America (with 40 percent of enterprises using it) and Europe (with only 22.6 percent using it).

In 2016, average spending on software-defined infrastructure is projected to increase by 14.4 percent, with 67 percent of enterprises reporting increases. The information industry vertical and the services vertical show the most favorable spending projections of around 20 percent.

About 60.1 percent of enterprises include software-defined infrastructure in their broader infrastructure hardware budgets, and these purchases are made by the CTO/CIO, according to 55.9 percent of respondents, followed by the CEO, according to 20.4 percent of respondents.

“Surprisingly, just 26 percent consider software-defined infrastructure as an enabling technology for private cloud, suggesting the links between software-defined and on-premises cloud initiatives have yet to be fully established,” analysts Simon Robinson and Nikolay Yamakawa write in the report. “In the coming years, we expect the adoption of different cloud models to increasingly catalyze enterprise investments in software-defined infrastructure.”