Backup and disaster recovery specialist Veeam Software has revealed that the latest version of its Availability Suite – expected in the second half of 2015 – will introduce advanced image-based VM replication to the cloud.

A cloud-based approach eliminates the need for customers to build and maintain a dedicated disaster recovery site, lowering the cost of infrastructure.

This extended functionality also enables Availability Suite users to offer Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) to their own customers, helping them capture an additional revenue stream.

In the video above, Veeam’s vice president for Product Strategy Doug Hazelman explains why keeping a copy of mission-critical data in the cloud is a good idea. He also sheds light on other features we can expect in the ninth version of Availability Suite.