Abstract: Virtualization snapshots are utilized for efficiently synchronizing virtual machines present on a client system and a server system. A snapshot of a virtual machine (VM) is taken by the client system before making modifications to the VM. The modifications to the VM are stored by the virtualization snapshot separate from the VM itself. The modified portions of the VM are communicated by the client system to the server system. The server system applies the modifications to a locally stored VM that corresponds to the original VM on the client system. The modified VM on the server system matches the modified VM on the client. As a result synchronization between the VMs on client system and the server system is obtained without transferring the entire VM multiple times. The server system performs format conversions between a format of the client system and the server system on the VM.

Abstract: A method to provide instant duplication of the machine images of an IT environment. The method is implemented by a system that includes a management server to oversee all operations, a storage controller, at least one host target machine of the IT Environment and at least one simple storage disk controlled by the storage controller. The method includes configuring each host target machine to access a logical drive as its hard drive, managing by the storage controller of the information inside each logical drive and storing the information on each of the at least one disks. The method also includes implementing the storage controller of two duplication algorithms. A third algorithm is provided for choosing between the first and the second duplication algorithms for each of the at least one disk elements in the IT environment.