'Sound recovery plans' needed when using virtual private servers

The performance of virtual private servers can be influenced by the quality of a firm's continuity plans, an expert has claimed.

John Savill, the advisory architect of EMC's Microsoft consulting practice, stated that a "sound" recovery plan is vital when using virtual machines (VMs).

He explained in a column for WindowITPro that Microsoft's VSS approach is regularly used in virtual servers.

"You should be either performing VSS backups or using a platform like System Center Data Protection Manager. You could also export your VMs, which would let you get configuration information about them," he added.

Jane Shurtleff, director of marketing for Certeon, recently told The Industry Standard that the cost of business continuity can be reduced by using virtualisation, as it helps firms to avoid paying for extra hardware.

Written by Chris Ball