IT managers love server virtualisation. Provisioning a new virtual machine (VM) is simple and cheap in comparison with the provisioning of a traditional physical server. However, these obvious benefits can be seriously undermined by poor management. Each VM is as demanding as any physical server in regard to support, security and compliance yet many managers treat them with less care as they no longer have the same physical demands on the business (space, power, hardware). Uncontrolled commissioning of VMs will soon overwhelm IT managers trying to find out what applications are running, where the data resides, where there are security vulnerabilities and where resources are being wasted. Virtualisation demands a greater level of diligence when managing the operational environment due to the simplicity of creating additional VMs.