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IBM Pushes New Backup Services Into the Cloud

IBM has launched two new cloud-based solutions that are geared toward the data protection and data recovery markets. The new services, which are branded IBM SmartCloud Virtualized Server Recovery and IBM SmartCloud Archive, are available under IBM SmartCloud Resilience services.

With the new services, IBM is looking to tap into the large potential market of backup and disaster recovery services, which many IT organizations are choosing to place in the cloud. IBM’s new services help clients to move critical data and recovery options offsite without the need for physical offsite facilities. This can significantly reduce IT expenses on disaster recovery and business continuity.

Backup and disaster recovery are two services that enterprise IT organizations are increasingly assigning to the cloud, rather than to physical offsite facilities. IBM SmartCloud Virtualized Server Recovery and IBM SmartCloud Archive are designed to add flexibility to customers seeking data and application protection in a cost-effective way, by offering faster recovery of archived data and essential applications.

Allen Downs, a director of IBM's Global Technology Services, says that IBM’s Virtualized Server Recovery service differs from other managed backup services by offering a single standardized virtualized server environment worldwide. That eliminates the need to custom-design services for each individual customer.

Basically, IBM’s new offerings constitute a cloud-based disaster management service, wherein clients within the IBM SmartCloud environment are able to protect and store critical business data efficiently in times of disaster (with disaster including both natural disasters and IT failures). In the past, companies had to create numerous images of servers and applications running at multiple sites for disaster recovery purposes. That proved to be very expensive, as well as a complex management challenge.

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