Archiving, Deduplication and Virtualization Take Center Stage in Backup Exec 2010 and NetBackup 7
Small, mid-sized and large enterprises are not the only ones looking to consolidate and simplify their IT management to create more cohesive management solutions. In the last few years, Symantec has been taking many of the same steps to integrate components of its Backup Exec, Enterprise Vault and NetBackup product suites to deliver solutions appropriate for the different size organizations that it serves. The progress that it has made in delivering on these ideals is reflected in today's Backup Exec 2010 and NetBackup 7 product releases.
One of the real strengths of Symantec's portfolio of information management products is that it has a solution for every size business. For example:
Of the two products, Backup Exec 2010 probably received the larger makeover. One major improvement it made was pulling in both NetBackup's PureDisk and OpenStorage API (OST) technologies. These features now give Backup Exec users the option to use deduplication on the client, on the media server or manage deduplicated data on an external deduplication appliance.
Possibly the slickest part about this new deduplication feature is its licensing. Users only need to purchase a single deduplication license to get deduplication everywhere, meaning at the client, media server and support for hardware partners via OST. This helps them in two ways.
First, if users can efficiently and effectively deduplicate data on either the client or the Backup Exec media server, they are all set. However there might be those organizations that are using Backup Exec to protect large database servers where client-based or media server-based deduplication is not a best fit and they need a deduplication appliance.
In these scenarios, Backup Exec's inclusion of the OST functionality as part of its deduplication license allows organizations to immediately support these deduplication appliances. Using this new OST feature, Backup Exec users can manage catalogs on these appliances and may even see faster backups depending on the level of the integration that exists between Backup Exec and the backup appliance.
Backup Exec 2010 will initially offer OST support for deduplication appliances from both ExaGrid and Quantum with OST support for other deduplication appliances in the pipeline. However users should note that just because Symantec deduplication license includes OST support, an additional OST license may be needed from the deduplication appliance provider depending on the appliance selected.
The other significant enhancement that Symantec makes to Backup Exec 2010 is the introduction of Unified Archiving. In 2010, Symantec ports the email and file archiving capabilities from Enterprise Vault and includes these as an optional feature within Backup Exec. If this option is selected and licensed, users can now archive either email messages on their Exchange server or files on protected client servers.
To do the archiving, the Unified Archive option leverages its integration with Backup Exec 2010 in two ways to do the data archiving. First, as data is backed up by the Backup Exec client, it takes data from that backup and moves it into the archive vault, indexing it as it occurs. This avoids any performance impact on the server since the data only need to be pulled from it once. Second, once the data is archived, the Backup Exec client is then leveraged again to schedule the deletion of the archived messages on the Exchange server and the archived files on the file server.
Organizations should note, however, that the introduction of Unified Archiving into Backup Exec is not the full-blown Enterprise Archive software. Rather, it has been tailored to meet the specific needs of mid-sized organizations. So if they need to do eDiscovery, satisfy external compliance requirements or archive data from another email platform such as Lotus Domino, then they will still need the full Enterprise Vault product. However the upside is that Symantec did include an upgrade path from Unified Archiving to Enterprise Vault so they can start with optional feature in Backup Exec 2010 and then upgrade to Enterprise Vault if needed later on.
The final major new feature that Symantec added to Backup Exec 2010 was improved support for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. While Backup Exec 12.5 already supported these OSes, Backup Exec 2010 better leverages its Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) to do single pass backups and granular recoveries of VMs that host Active Directory (AD), Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server applications. This integration enables organizations to recover individual email messages or AD objects without first having to recover the entire database.
The other news from Symantec today concerns the latest release of NetBackup 7 which also extends the ability to deduplication to the client server.
In a fashion similar to Backup Exec 2010, NetBackup delivers improved support for virtual operating systems per the ways referenced earlier. However one key differentiator between it and Backup Exec 2010 is that it can identify 'dead' or 'unused' blocks in VMDK images. By identifying these blocks, it can avoid backing them up which Symantec claims can reduce backup capacity amounts by up to 40%.
Another improvement that Symantec made concerns its NetBackup RealTime CDP product. Like PureDisk, RealTime was already an option in NetBackup but with NetBackup 7, it adds replication to RealTime's feature set. Also, as a way to encourage prospective customers to adopt this feature, it is for a time including free NetBackup catalog shipping as a way to introduce and promote RealTime's replication feature.
In the past few years, Symantec has made it no secret that it intends to better leverage the features found in its individual products more fully across its entire information management portfolio. Backup Exec 2010 and NetBackup 7 clearly reflect those efforts. However it is Backup Exec 2010 and mid-sized organizations that are the clear beneficiaries of this latest round of product releases from Symantec. The addition of archiving, deduplication and better support for server virtualization should provide current Backup Exec users plenty of reasons to upgrade and prospective users new reasons to consider Backup Exec as their preferred data management platform.
One of the real strengths of Symantec's portfolio of information management products is that it has a solution for every size business. For example:
- Backup Exec System Recovery is intended for small organizations with 10 - 99 employees, 1-4 Windows servers and no IT staff.
- Backup Exec is intended for mid-sized organizations with 100 - 999 employees that have 3 - 100 Windows servers and 1 or 2 IT staff
- NetBackup and Enterprise Vault are intended for organizations with 500+ employees, 50 or more servers of any OS type, specialized backup teams and a data center
Of the two products, Backup Exec 2010 probably received the larger makeover. One major improvement it made was pulling in both NetBackup's PureDisk and OpenStorage API (OST) technologies. These features now give Backup Exec users the option to use deduplication on the client, on the media server or manage deduplicated data on an external deduplication appliance.
Possibly the slickest part about this new deduplication feature is its licensing. Users only need to purchase a single deduplication license to get deduplication everywhere, meaning at the client, media server and support for hardware partners via OST. This helps them in two ways.
First, if users can efficiently and effectively deduplicate data on either the client or the Backup Exec media server, they are all set. However there might be those organizations that are using Backup Exec to protect large database servers where client-based or media server-based deduplication is not a best fit and they need a deduplication appliance.
In these scenarios, Backup Exec's inclusion of the OST functionality as part of its deduplication license allows organizations to immediately support these deduplication appliances. Using this new OST feature, Backup Exec users can manage catalogs on these appliances and may even see faster backups depending on the level of the integration that exists between Backup Exec and the backup appliance.
Backup Exec 2010 will initially offer OST support for deduplication appliances from both ExaGrid and Quantum with OST support for other deduplication appliances in the pipeline. However users should note that just because Symantec deduplication license includes OST support, an additional OST license may be needed from the deduplication appliance provider depending on the appliance selected.
The other significant enhancement that Symantec makes to Backup Exec 2010 is the introduction of Unified Archiving. In 2010, Symantec ports the email and file archiving capabilities from Enterprise Vault and includes these as an optional feature within Backup Exec. If this option is selected and licensed, users can now archive either email messages on their Exchange server or files on protected client servers.
To do the archiving, the Unified Archive option leverages its integration with Backup Exec 2010 in two ways to do the data archiving. First, as data is backed up by the Backup Exec client, it takes data from that backup and moves it into the archive vault, indexing it as it occurs. This avoids any performance impact on the server since the data only need to be pulled from it once. Second, once the data is archived, the Backup Exec client is then leveraged again to schedule the deletion of the archived messages on the Exchange server and the archived files on the file server.
Organizations should note, however, that the introduction of Unified Archiving into Backup Exec is not the full-blown Enterprise Archive software. Rather, it has been tailored to meet the specific needs of mid-sized organizations. So if they need to do eDiscovery, satisfy external compliance requirements or archive data from another email platform such as Lotus Domino, then they will still need the full Enterprise Vault product. However the upside is that Symantec did include an upgrade path from Unified Archiving to Enterprise Vault so they can start with optional feature in Backup Exec 2010 and then upgrade to Enterprise Vault if needed later on.
The final major new feature that Symantec added to Backup Exec 2010 was improved support for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. While Backup Exec 12.5 already supported these OSes, Backup Exec 2010 better leverages its Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) to do single pass backups and granular recoveries of VMs that host Active Directory (AD), Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server applications. This integration enables organizations to recover individual email messages or AD objects without first having to recover the entire database.
The other news from Symantec today concerns the latest release of NetBackup 7 which also extends the ability to deduplication to the client server.
In a fashion similar to Backup Exec 2010, NetBackup delivers improved support for virtual operating systems per the ways referenced earlier. However one key differentiator between it and Backup Exec 2010 is that it can identify 'dead' or 'unused' blocks in VMDK images. By identifying these blocks, it can avoid backing them up which Symantec claims can reduce backup capacity amounts by up to 40%.
Another improvement that Symantec made concerns its NetBackup RealTime CDP product. Like PureDisk, RealTime was already an option in NetBackup but with NetBackup 7, it adds replication to RealTime's feature set. Also, as a way to encourage prospective customers to adopt this feature, it is for a time including free NetBackup catalog shipping as a way to introduce and promote RealTime's replication feature.
In the past few years, Symantec has made it no secret that it intends to better leverage the features found in its individual products more fully across its entire information management portfolio. Backup Exec 2010 and NetBackup 7 clearly reflect those efforts. However it is Backup Exec 2010 and mid-sized organizations that are the clear beneficiaries of this latest round of product releases from Symantec. The addition of archiving, deduplication and better support for server virtualization should provide current Backup Exec users plenty of reasons to upgrade and prospective users new reasons to consider Backup Exec as their preferred data management platform.
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