The idea of virtualization is an idea whose time has come. Words like cloud computing and virtual machines are no longer forward thinking wishes of information technology directors but have come to fruition thanks a company called VMware. Named for a combination of Virtual Machine and Software, VMware is the leader in the virtualization market. With more than 190,000 customers and 25,000 partners in dozens of countries around the world VMware’s products run the virtualization for 8 out of every 10 companies. Yet, though it has established itself as a behemoth in a market on the verge of explosion, VMware is hardly alone. In fact, a spate of recent executive-level shake ups has created a small opening for competing virtualization products. For the typical technology director this means that when thinking about virtualization expansion or the process of virtual backup, one needs to go beyond just VMware and think about the other virtualization and virtual backup options available to them.
Virtual Backup Expands Beyond VMware
In recent years, a couple of other players have emerged on the scene to peck at the dominance of VMware including the Citrix Xen Server 1.0. Oracle was once a cozy friend of VMware but with the release of its virtual machine infrastructure product in 2007, the California-based company emerged more as a frenemy. These releases in no way knocks VMware off the top heap when it comes to virtual machines and virtualization products but it does mean that technology directors have an alternative to VMware products when looking for solutions to their virtual back up issues. Right not the most talked about new tool is, of course, the VMware Data Recovery tool. The new release by VMware promises to work seamlessly with VMware virtualization infrastructure, using a nifty plug in to initiate and process the backup operation. The VMware plug-in works in cooperation with the VMware vCenter Server, allowing you to choose which virtual machines you would like to back up and also sets a schedule for these backups and select the disc destination for the data.
A Look at Virtual Backup Options
Other options for virtual backup include software downloads or setting up guest level backups by installing backup agents on each supported operating system and pick and choose what data needs to be protected. This is risky because storage limits prohibit you from backing up everything so you still have to ensure a back up for your back up.