Virtualization has more than just allowed you to run multiple VMs on a single physical machine; it’s ushered in an era where even the smallest company can host the most complicated multi-tiered applications. And while for some of you virtualization does just mean having a few guest OSes on a hypervisor, for others it’s a more complex mix of clusters and server farms – all of which need to be protected in case of the need for recovery. And with that complexity comes the questi

We all know your virtual environment isn't going to remain static. And with the potential for so many IT pros managing an already complex virtual infrastructure, the question inevitably comes up How do you keep track of changes? as well as (and probably more importantly) What impact do those changes have? In this webcast, I'm joined by Hassan Fahimi from Dell Software, product manager for Foglight for Virtualization, as we discuss the challenges of maintaining control over ch

When you think of the mix of servers, storage, and virtualization in your data center, the word simple probably doesn’t come to mind. Your architecture is likely understood by only a few seasoned IT pros, disaster recovery plans are a disaster themselves, and updating your environment requires some significant planning and most of your time this weekend. So, why does everything need to be so complicated? Well, in this recorded webcast, I talk with Jason Collier from Scale

Virtual to virtual (V2V) recovery involves the backing up and recovering of virtual machines. So you may be thinking that your customer already has a virtual infrastructure, so why would they need V2V recovery services? Great question, right? But there’s one presumptive point in that question that may not be true when recovery is required. When you consider your customers with a VMware or Hyper-V-based infrastructure, and think about the idea of offering V2V recovery, you pro

In my last article, I discussed how some applications are so critical, they need to be recovered using timeframes in terms of minutes – even when there’s no hardware available – making virtual disaster recovery (VDR) the second step towards building a solid business recovery program for your clients. VDR is useful in addressing the need to meet a particularly restrictive recovery time objective (RTO), but what about when a system is so critical that it has an equally restrict

Some applications will be important enough that having an ability to recover to the same (or similar) hardware isn’t enough. Take email for example. If your client has an Exchange server running and wants to make sure it can be recovered within an hour with data no more than 4 hours old, that’s an absolute standard. It means no matter what, you have an hour. Period. What if you have no network, no server hardware, how about no building? You have an hour! How in the world are