Leeds NHS trust has invested in virtualisation in a move that it fully expects will save it time and money in relation to its disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

Computing.co.uk reports that the move will allow the trust to be more flexible when it comes to disaster recovery issues and IT general.

Speaking to the website, Russell Hornshaw, said: "The system allows us to deploy, manage and utilise our IT staff more efficiently rather than wasting their time on legacy tasks like manual tape backup across our large historical server estate."

He added that the new system has "challenged the way we think about how our services are delivered to the business".

Earlier this week, writing for Director of Finance Online Anne Low said it would be "rash" for firms not to put a business continuity plan in place.

She pointed out that by putting one in place, firms will be able to recover from any disaster with the minimum of delay.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to www.totalrecall.co.uk