Codestone

Citrix XenServer virtualisation solution can help organisations to protect against natural disasters, one expert has claimed.

IT department manager of Rankin County in the US Billy Rials said the software is able to safeguard important data from being lost to tornado activity that is frequent in the region.

He remarked: "Backing up data to a remote location isn’t enough. By virtualising our servers with Citrix XenServer, both data and servers are protected."

According to Mr Rials, this quickens recovery time from days or weeks to just a few minutes.

The specialist went on to say that a number of the county’s services "are critical", such as the sheriff’s office and 911 calls, so 24-7 functionality is a must.

Virtualising has helped keep the servers operational at all times and the authorities are now looking to install XenDesktop as well, he added.

Writing for Network World, Robin Gareiss of Nemertes Research recently stated that server virtualisation helps to make business processes more agile.