Recovery is all about having good backups; without a clean, consistent backup, there is nothing to recover. And today, recovery speed is also very important. Many organizations cannot tolerate long periods of downtime while data is being restored. So, data protection vendors are adding features that are aimed at reducing recovery time (RTO) and point objectives (RPO).

Snapshot is one of the storage tools fueling a shift in how enterprises protect data. This is not a new technology, but advancements in backup software have made them more practical. Snapshots allow for quick restores of data, and many backup software vendors have integrated with storage arrays, so snapshots can be managed as part of the backup process. When used together with replication, snapshots can protect against primary storage failures. Another technology gaining steam in today’s market? Recovery-in-place. This technology, which is enabled by server virtualization, allows users to run an application from a backup instance of a virtual machine while the primary VM is being restored. In some cases, this can be used in place of replication. In this e-book chapter, you’ll learn how these technologies work — as well as their pros and cons. You will also benefit from expert insight into what using these technologies can do for your business.