More than half of all companies today are using virtual servers to streamline their data storage and server use. However, virtual servers, as with any data storage method, are subject to fail for a variety of reasons, resulting in catastrophic data loss and the need for emergency data recovery.Let’s look at five ways your virtual server may fail:1. RAID failure – Remember, even a virtual server is based in real hardware, usually a RAID 5, RAID 6 or higher array. If two or more hard drives fail in a RAID 6 array, you could be looking at mission critical data loss. Additionally, a failed RAID drive, undetected, often leads to cascading failure of the entire array. And if the infrastructure on which your virtual server is built collapses, you’ll need emergency data recovery.2. VMDK corruption – A virtual server is made up of a number of Virtual Machine Disks. A VMDK may be corrupted due to age, a virus, malaware attack or other factors. VMDK corruption can lead to failure of your virtual server and catastrophic data loss.3. Hardware failure – As with any machines, the hard disks that make up the RAID array in your virtual server can fail due to shock damage, power surges or even natural disasters. When this occurs, you may need emergency physical data recovery.4. VMFS File System Corruption on ESX Server – Every virtual machine must run on a host, such as an ESX or ESXi server. Sometimes, the Virtual Machine File System becomes corrupted, rendering data unreadable.5. Deleted VMFS files – Your Virtual Machine File System contains important data that keeps your virtual server running. If critical files are deleted, you may not be able to access any of the data on your virtual server.