Replicating Virtual Machines – A New Way to Backup and Disaster Recovery

Maintaining data backup is very important because there are instances when the data can be deleted not saved or the system might just crash. Therefore, disaster recovery is a vital component without which backup cannot be done. However, backup and disaster recovery are two distinguishing concepts.

Backup in the age of virtualization:

In the old times, when a server crashed, the user had to go through some steps in order to reinstall their server or get a new one in the working position. This was not only time taking but expensive as well. On the contrary, in the current times, especially in the age of virtualization, the disaster recovery is done by duplicating the images and the virtual machines while saving them elsewhere.

Virtualization has many options. Unlike the conventional times, the data can be saved as part of an image of a virtual machine and this machine will have its local data, application software, settings and memory. In addition, the virtual machine does not require a specific environment for recreating it; it can be done in any well-suited atmosphere. This can be done via using the third party cloud service. It not only reduces the prices of redundant systems but also, does not require any physical server to be rebuilt.

How disaster recovery works:

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Disaster recovery is easy, cheap, quick and very much cater to all the requirements of the virtual age and faster recovery time objectives are easier to achieve. There are many approaches for Virtual Machine replication. The leading virtualization platform suppliers offer different levels of Virtual Machine replication services which are embedded in the products. Other products are capable of replicating and recovering of multiple virtual machines. This allows the running application to be consistent with the related data.

Another application is Zerto. It has a built in automation and orchestration. It minimizes the impact on the run-time environment.

Other tools work by taking snapshots of the virtual machines at given intervals. This is done by pausing an on-going operation on the virtual machine for long enough to copy its data, settings and memory before resuming it’s functioning. These snapshots are then used to recreate the virtual machine over and again. The recovery point objective is determined by the number of snapshots taken. While the recovery time objective depends upon how quickly the alternative virtual resource can be accessed.

The traditional backups in the virtual age:

There are other suppliers that specialize in the virtual backup environment. They have a product line which is adapted by the traditional backup suppliers. The traditional suppliers have an advantage of supporting the physical environment and the virtual ones. This means that they not only require their virtual machine to be replicated but also physical server to be backed up as well. Interestingly, this is the present situation of many organizations.