Veritas retools its Backup Exec baby

Veritas has once again beefed up its popular storage software - Backup Exec - aimed at small- and medium-sized customers by adding a number of tools typically found only with its more expensive products.

Veritas CEO Gary Bloom today unveiled Backup Exec 10.0 in front of a large crowd full of reporters, analysts and customers here at the Essex House hotel in New York. The software meant for customers running Microsoft Windows servers should make it easier to backup data in small chunks, to use higher performing disk storage instead of tape and to monitor a large number of systems from a single management point. Overall, Veritas has brought some of the tools found in its pricier NetBackup product down to Backup Exec and made the new software work better with its Storage Exec and Replication Exec products.

"The number one thing (SMBs) need is efficiency," Bloom said. "They need low cost IT. We are talking, in some cases, about organizations that have handfuls of people at the most to run IT."

One of the higher-end additions to Backup Exec 10.0 is the "synthetic backup" technology first introduced with NetBackup. This software lets an administrator create a full backup once and then rely solely on incremental backups from there on out. Backup Exec will, as instructed, take all of the incremental backups and combine them to form a full backup. This saves customers from performing numerous full backups, which require lots of processing power and time.

Another time saver comes in the form of something Veritas is calling the Central Administration Server Option. This means customers can now manage all of their Backup Exec servers from one point. A number of users interviewed at the product launch were enamored with this tool, saying it should cut way back on the time it takes to make sure backups at various offices have been completed.

Rest of Story: The Register