Data recovery problem? Think virtualization

BANGALORE, INDIA: VMware, Inc., a provider in virtualization solutions, recently announced the results of a comprehensive survey on the operational efficiency, disaster preparedness, and use of virtualization among small-and-medium sized business (SMB) IT centers.

Among many conclusions of the survey is that one-third of SMBs have had an IT systems outage within the past two years and more than one in five has lost critical business data as a result of an accident or disaster. Of those, more than three in five have lost sales or customers as a result.

At the same time, 47 per cent have a business continuity plan that has been updated in the past two years, or have a detailed data backup and retention policy – even though retaining current customers was ranked as a highly important business goal by 77 per cent.

“Small and medium business owners understand that their customers are their top priority. However, they don’t fully appreciate the risks of permanent damage a systems outage can have on the relationship with their customers,” said Joe Andrews, group manager, product marketing at VMware.

He added, “The good news is implementing virtualization can greatly improve disaster preparedness and recovery so businesses can more easily meet customer demands and maintain their business operations. ”

SMBs and Virtualization

The survey found that SMBs are achieving a wide range of benefits with virtualization. The areas in which the most SMBs reported significant improvements were time spent on routine IT administrative tasks, application availability, ability to respond to changing business needs, backup and data protection, business continuity preparedness, and company profitability and growth rate.

“Even a very small business with only a few servers can benefit from virtualization, and it’s easy to get started with free VMware solutions like ESXi,” said Andrews.

He further said that whether it’s time freed up to respond to new business challenges, reduced hardware costs, improved disaster preparedness, or more satisfied end users, these results show that the benefits are significant across the board, and for all kinds of companies.

According to the study, almost 89 per cent IT departments spend half or more of their time on routine administrative tasks. Companies that have implemented virtualization see their IT departments as more effective.

IT departments are generally perceived as responsive to business needs; Companies that have implemented virtualization see their IT departments as more responsive. 73 per cent of companies that use virtualization rate them as somewhat or very responsive, versus 57 per cent of companies that have not implemented virtualization.

The study also noted the top IT initiatives for SMBs in 2010, which include improving security, data backup and protection, maintaining current infrastructure, reducing energy use, and business continuity with disaster recovery and the top business goals are retaining key employees, controlling costs , finding new customers, retaining current customers, and increasing productivity.