Andy Cocks

Hear the word disaster-recovery and typical IT teams would let out a collective groan. With virtualisation, it need not be difficult actually. Indeed it could make disaster recovery a cinch. Server consolidation, cost savings and risk mitigation are among the key benefits of virtualised environments.

In the wake of global pandemics, natural disasters and the like, having a robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is essential. And expanding one’s Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a key driver to improving the corporate BCP.

But space and cost are the two primary constraints for disaster recovery. Traditional DR solutions require the current IT infrastructure to be duplicated almost in its entirety at the DR site. The cost to mirror it in this manner can be prohibitively high if space is at a premium, or just plain wasteful otherwise. Cue virtualisation to the rescue!

With virtualisation software technology like VMWare companies can run multiple virtual machines, multiple operating systems and applications at the same time on a single physical computer, with each virtual machine having access to the resources as and when it needs them. It’s like having a multi-headed computer in some ways!

Virtualisation brings about substantial cost savings. As the company no longer needs to depend on a replica of the production hardware at the DR site, a small cluster of servers, running on virtualisation software, can now fit within the space constraints of an existing server room, without racking up expensive real estate rental costs and capital expenditure. In fact the physical server footprint can be reduced by up to 85%! Other cost savings include:

• Reduced server count – resulting in simplified IT management and more streamlined operations
• Minimise revenue loss due to downtime
• Reduce efforts to synchronise production and DR server images
• Fewer servers mean less energy utilisation, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the data centre

Cost and space-efficiency aside, a virtualised DR environment is far more flexible than a traditional set-up. Companies will find it easier to adjust the resources allocated to a given server as needed when the company’s production servers and services evolve over time.

Has your company realised other benefits from virtualisation for disaster recovery? Tell us!

Also check out Datacraft’s opinion piece on Virtualisation for Storage Environment and Virtualisation Touches Everything.

Andy Cocks

Andy Cocks is Director, Solutions Development Group & Alliances at Datacraft Asia, and is primarily responsible for solution execution and strategy and for bringing innovative solutions to market. Andy also manages the key alliance partner relationships.

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