Virtualization of Server Disaster Recovery: A Viable Option for Your Manufacturing Firm?
Have you considered virtualization of your current server disaster recovery system? Having a server disaster recovery program in place is not only keeping up to date with technology, but it is also a wise investment. Disasters, both human-made and natural, are a part of our lives. Every business organization faces the possible risk of hackers, viruses, spy ware, worms and other deadly computer infestations. In addition, not only human-made disasters can occur. Natural disasters, such as storms, tornados, and power outages could cause havoc on your data files.
Server disaster recovery is the method related to preparing for a recovery in the event of a disaster. This is a subset of business continuity. Business continuity involves the strategic planning for keeping all functions and aspects of a business running smoothly in the midst of a disaster. Server disaster recovery has its main focus on technology systems that support your business functions in the event of a disaster.
Why is it so important to have disaster recovery systems for your manufacturing firm? As technology systems become increasingly more critical to the viability of a company and the economy as a whole, the importance and value of ensuring the continued function of those systems has also increased.
Estimates state that anywhere from 2% to 4% of most large company’s IT budgets are spent on disaster recovery planning, the goal being to avoid larger losses in the event that the organization loses function. This is not very much, considering the high risk a business takes for not using virtualization of their server disaster recovery and making sure that all their files can be backed up regularly and easily retrieved in the event of a disaster.
Of those businesses that experienced a major loss of data, due to not using virtualization of server disaster recovery, almost half of them never reopen again (43 percent). There are 51% of those businesses that close within two years of the first disaster and only 6% survive long-term. Due to this, preparing for server disaster recovery needs to be taken very seriously for your manufacturing company. Virtualization or not, this will not only require a significant amount of time investment on your part, but also an investment of money. Your aim should be on ensuring and preventing losses in the event of a disaster.
There is one method known as virtualization that can dramatically cut down on your disaster recovery costs. In the old days, a separate floor would be used to set up a configuration to back up all of the company’s files. Now, through virtualization, you’re able to have a separate configuration set up on a logical partition. This means no large computer mainframes, servers, or hard drives. Virtualization not only saves you the hassles of having to purchase additional hardware, but also saves you on having to hire a department to set and configure those pieces of hardware.
As you can see from all of the information stated above, making your server disaster recovery virtual can not only saves you money, space, time and energy, but it can also help make your manufacturing firm run more efficiently. This could easily translate into more office productivity and peace of mind, knowing that if anything were to happen, your data would be easily retrievable for use. If you are interested in saving money and simplifying your manufacturing firms’ IT department, then virtualization of your current disaster recovery could be an excellent option for you.
