A lot of organizations are revamping their IT systems now that the economy is recovering. Many are using services like server virtualization and thin client technology—both of which lend themselves to you having a great opportunity to make a more robust Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).
Without getting into the technical details, robust virtualization technology exists today that allows your operating systems and applications to be easily portable from one computer to the next, and even delivered to a machine quickly through the Internet.
This means that if a disaster strikes your main office—even a power failure that exceeds the capabilities of your standby power generator—your servers can basically migrate themselves to servers operating in one of your other offices or a safe data center of your choosing. Keeping this in plain English: your users will still be able to get their work done as if nothing happened.
In the past, this kind of protection was very expensive, and now the prices are spiraling down. Some of the technologies you put in to save money on servers today, like server virtualization, come with this DRP advantage as a “side benefit” if you use it. As you add technology to support remote users or simplify the IT management in your organization, like Terminal Services or Citrix Xen, also add the possibility for robust DRP.
As you upgrade your systems—be sure to get advice from a qualified professional about getting your Disaster Recovery Plan in order!