Is Virtualization an Appropriate Method of Disaster Recovery for the Hospitality Industry?

Organisations across all business sectors are making increasing use of IT today. While other industries have understood the consequences of this dependence in the event of IT disasters and placed a large emphasis on disaster recovery plans and technology, the hospitality industry is lagging behind. One of the reasons why the hospitality industry does not place as much of an importance to disaster recovery is the cost. However, IT disaster is a very damaging occurrence, and measures should be taken to mitigate the event. Loss of a property\u27s information technology (IT) functions can cause chaos in a hotel’s operations leading to revenue losses and negative publicity that may take years to overcome. Virtualization is a relatively new technology, which is easier to manage, and it is said to be cost effective, and ideal for disaster recovery purposes. However, it may not be suitable to every industry. The purpose of this study is to examine virtualization as a method of disaster recovery for the hospitality industry