Server virtualization can offer some significant advantages in resolving data protection issues for SMBs. While the cost savings associated with server consolidation alone have been enough to justify the move to server virtualization for many companies, it's important not to overlook the opportunities it provides to optimize data protection operations. Many of these optimizations are just not available in physical server environments, and it is our recommendation that, as SMBs become comfortable with their server virtualization deployments, they should be looking at each and every one of these other optimization opportunities. For the SMB to take advantage of them, though, they must be very accessible - easy to deploy and use.

This paper identifies the data protection optimizations available in the VMware vSphere environment, and shows how the recent VMware Data Recovery introduction makes it very easy for SMBs to leverage them to resolve backup window, RPO, RTO, and recovery reliability concerns.