Virtualization shines in quality assurance, development, and testing. Backups or virtual machines can be restored to another environment and operate just like the original. This allows an organization to better test their backups or their business continuity plan without interrupting production systems. Similar to the hot, warm, or cold site, virtual machines can be deployed in an alternate location just as they would in a disaster thereby allowing the organization to determine the length of time needed to make systems available in an emergency. As a result, team members will be more familiar with the process and less likely to make mistakes that could cause delays in making the organization operational again.

Regardless if you have a virtual environment or not, it is important to test your backups and business continuity plan as part of your information security risk management strategy. In this way you will be able to proactively identify any flaws in the plan prior to an actual emergency. It is much better to correct an error before it results in lost data or profits.