Thursday, May 17, 2012

Report: SMBs adopting virtualization, cloud for disaster recovery ...

It is more important than ever for companies to have disaster recovery plans in place, as not being able to access mission-critical applications and data can cause severe repercussions. The inability to leverage essential solutions will not only decrease client satisfaction, but also drive up costs, which can cause serious issues for firms in today's unpredictable economy. By developing and implementing disaster recovery plans, small and medium-sized businesses can remain competitive and continue to meet evolving customers demands, even in the face of IT incidents.

According to a new study by Symantec, SMBs are increasingly adopting cloud computing, virtualization and mobile technologies to enhance efficiency and the effectiveness of disaster recovery programs.

"Today's SMBs are in a unique position to embrace new technologies that not only provide a competitive edge but also allow them to improve their ability to recover from a disaster while protecting the information that their businesses depend on," said Steve Cullen, the senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Symantec.

The study revealed that 34 percent of SMBs are adopting virtualization technologies to enhance server performance. Similarly 40 percent of companies are deploying public cloud environments, while 43 percent choose to leverage private clouds, most likely because hosting virtual environments on-site is inherently less risky than migrating mission-critical solutions to external architectures.

Symantec noted that the demand to improve disaster recovery played a major role in SMBs choosing to deploy these technologies. According to the study, 37 percent of SMBs that deployed internally hosted environments did so because they felt private cloud performance would improve business continuity in the event of an emergency. Likewise, 34 percent of respondents said they deployed public clouds and server virtualization also to enhance their disaster recovery plans.

The report found that server virtualization was the most advantageous deployment, as it helped nearly three-quarters of businesses improve disaster preparedness. Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of SMBs said both private and public cloud provisioning helped them fortify emergency performance capabilities.

"SMBs cannot afford lengthy downtimes so the ability to quickly recover from a disaster is critical," Cullen said. "Technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing and mobility, combined with a sound plan and comprehensive security and data protection solutions, enable SMBs to better prepare for and quickly recover from potential disasters such as floods or fires, as well as lost or stolen mobile devices and laptops."

A separate InformationWeek report encouraged decision-makers to overcome irrational beliefs about cloud health risks, as the technology's disaster recovery benefits will likely outweigh any security or downtime risks. While there are inherent concerns associated with adopting hosted environments, the cloud enables IT departments to establish DR plans without adding most costs.

According to predictions made by cloud service provider Doyenz, SMBs will leverage the cloud and other next-generation technologies because of the increasing demand to have applications, not just data, available at all times, especially during an emergency.

Symantec recommends that decision-makers immediately begin planning disaster recovery programs that incorporate the cloud, virtualization or mobile services. Businesses also need to implement innovative security appliances, like server and cloud monitoring tools, as well as backup solutions, that can make disaster recovery programs more effective in the event of an emergency.

By leveraging server monitoring solutions, for example, IT departments will be able to have real-time visibility into their virtual environments to determine where any specific issues have arisen.

Symantec also encouraged SMB decision-makers to review and test their disaster recovery plans at least several times each year, as even one outage that makes mission-critical services unavailable can cause severe repercussions that will ripple throughout the entire company.

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