Survey Says Virtualization Plays Role In DR, But Not Complete Solution

WAYNE, Pa., June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- A large majority of information technology (IT) executives say virtualization technologies can play a major role in a disaster recovery plan -- but these technologies are not a complete solution, according to the results of the State of Disaster Recovery survey conducted by Harris Interactive(R). While many IT decision-makers say they have deployed virtualization, survey data show most had not yet utilized the technology in a disaster recovery situation.

In the survey, commissioned by SunGard Availability Services, 74 percent of IT respondents indicate virtualization can play a major role but is not a total solution for disaster recovery plans. One-quarter of IT respondents say they would never include virtualization technologies in their disaster recovery plans.

Sixty percent of IT respondents say they have virtualization in place now as a recovery tool from unplanned outages -- but only 29 percent have used it successfully with eight percent saying they used virtualization but unsuccessfully. Another 29 percent of IT decision-makers say they have deployed virtualization but not yet used it as a tool for disaster recovery.

"Virtualization technologies are changing the way disaster recovery solutions are developed and deployed -- for both end-user organizations and third-party service providers," said Don Norbeck, technology officer, virtualization and product strategy at SunGard Availability Services. "The survey reveals companies see virtualization as part of their disaster recovery strategy, but most recognize they also need more. The Achilles heel of many virtualized IT environments is they depend on a single data center to execute system failover should an outage occur. A recovery strategy with no off-site data center can result in no recovery."

Future Technology DeploymentsOver the next two years, half of IT decision-makers indicate their companies will be looking into virtualization as an option for managing unplanned outages and disaster recovery. About a quarter of IT executives say they will be looking into cloud computing and grid networking as potential options.

"The technology landscape for disaster recovery is changing quickly -- presenting challenges for end-user organizations to stay current. These changes demonstrate the value in teaming with a third-party vendor with core competencies in data centers and recoverability to help navigate through information availability issues in virtual, cloud and grid environments," said Mr. Norbeck.
Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of SunGard Availability Services in March 2009 with 497 qualified respondents, including 277 business and 220 IT participants. Qualified business respondents hold at least a director level title and have associated responsibilities, such as business and staff, in business areas. Qualified IT respondents hold at least a manager level title and have associated responsibilities, such as business and staff, in IT areas. All respondents came from companies with 50 or more employees.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research that is powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
About SunGard Availability Services
SunGard Availability Services provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software to more than 10,000 customers in North America and Europe. With five million square feet of datacenter and operations space, SunGard assists IT organizations across virtually all industry and government sectors prepare for and recover from emergencies by helping them minimize their computer downtime and optimize their uptime. Through direct sales and channel partners, we help organizations ensure their people and customers have uninterrupted access to the information systems they need in order to do business. To learn more, visit www.availability.sungard.com or call 1-800-468-7483.
About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world's leading software and IT services companies. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including the world's 25 largest financial services companies.
SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.
With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and services company on the Forbes list of private businesses. Based on information compiled by Datamonitor*, SunGard is the third largest provider of business applications software after Oracle and SAP. Continuity, Insurance & Risk has recognized SunGard as service provider of the year an unprecedented six times. For more information, please visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
*January 2009 Technology Vendors Financial Database Tracker http://www.datamonitor.com/
Trademark Information: SunGard and the SunGard logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Source: SunGard Availability Services