The Thirsk, North Yorkshire-based label and nameplate specialist installed a VMWare virtual machine earlier this year, which made an exact copy of each live server onto a USB disk.

According to Peter Young, site manager at GSM Graphic Arts, the system restore was both quick and easy to install but a feature the business never expected to use.

"However, a few weeks ago, our small business server failed and this left us in the position where none of our PC’s could log onto the network. We also couldn’t access Shuttleworth MIS or other network resources," he said.

A call to Shuttleworth meant the system was quickly back up, which kept downtime to a minimum. "For us the Virtual System Restore has certainly been worth its weight in gold as it turned a potential disaster into a slight inconvenience," added Young.