Getting the most out of virtualization requires firms to overcome cultural divides that exist within even the most functional of IT departments. Persuading the business to make the upfront investment in virtualization is no small task, but even companies that have accomplished this often have trouble persuading application owners to go virtual. And even companies that have successfully done all of this and implemented a virtual environment don't see the cost savings and efficiency gains they were expecting. Why? Because virtualization requires new skills, new processes, and new alignments within your infrastructure and operations (I&O) department. This report outlines the best practices that you should follow to optimize your I&O department for maximum efficiency gains with virtualization.