US web hosting company Peer 1 Network Enterprises Inc, which now operates in Europe, is to offer its managed storage customers image backup and bare metal recovery in preference to data protection processes that rely on backup or replication to tape or disk. 

With the service both Windows and Linux servers can be rapidly recovered to an identical state at a specific point in time, prior to any failure or corruption, the company said as it announced the improvement.

The hosting vendor said it will be using backup technology from Cristie Software and IBM to recover servers.

The service consists of a set of server configuration files, and a bootable disaster recovery image held on CD which contains a customised Linux or Windows operating system. 

Peer 1 has 15 data centres worldwide from which it offers a range of services from managed hosting and support services to dedicated hosting through its ServerBeach brand.

It competes with the likes of Rackspace, NetBenefit and Savvis.