D Virtualisation at top of the agenda at the IT Directors' Forum

Virtualisation - well, that’s a Web 2.0 word if ever I heard one. But what exactly does it mean? Well, in pure IT terms, you will often hear it used in connection with servers where it effectively allows you to run a number of operating systems and their applications on a single server.

However, when it comes to document scanning, virtualisation is used in a whole different context. Virtualisation refers to the idea of storing documents in a virtual environment, creating a secure storage area akin to a vault or a safe where we can keep our information and documents safe . just like in a physical one, only this time virtually. Essentially, a highly secured area which contains your company’s information and yet makes it instantly accessible to you all day every day, whatever your location.

To achieve this, our own solution for this uses eView+ which is exactly this type of Virtual Vault. It’s also an ideal solution for companies who want all the benefits that document scanning offers, but are unsure if they want to hold the information themselves or indeed whether they have sufficient space on their own servers to do so.

Effectively outsourcing this storage and secure access has proven to be the perfect solution for many organisations and judging by the reaction at the IT Directors’ Forum, it is becoming increasingly popular. Although the size of company looking for this varies enormously, the solution works equally well if you only need a small number of documents stored or are looking to index hundreds of thousands of records. With half a billion documents already stored, size is not an issue.

Added to this, should the worse happen and records you hold at your own offices, in whatever format, are damaged or lost, then you are ideally covered from a disaster recovery perspective and can be back up and running almost immediately - saving you time, inconvenience and expense.

So next time you hear virtualisation, don’t think servers . think of a secure Virtual Vault, safely looking after your most important documents.