Server virtualisation 'reduces time required for disaster recovery'

Server virtualisation saves time and money when it comes to the disaster recovery of organisations, it has been said.

Richard Jones, data centre specialist at the Burton Group, wrote on SearchDataCenter.com that virtualisation decreases the amount of time needed to carry out disaster recovery by more than 50 per cent.

It has also reduced the number of staff required to perform this function by almost half.

The economic climate has, however, forced businesses to operate on a tighter budget and disaster recovery could be one area of expenditure that is cut, he stated.

Mr Jones noted that "purchasing a support subscription from a Linux distribution vendor still offers savings over commercial products but maintains the peace of mind of having somewhere to turn to in case problems arise".

Regular backups are an important practice and businesses may find rsync - included with most enterprise Linux distributions - quickly replicates files with minimal effort.

Written by Tim Dunton