Veritas Aims Backup Exec at SMBs

NEW YORK — Looking to extend its back-up software leadership in the small- to medium-sized business market, Veritas Software on Tuesday launched two software packages geared to preserve data on laptops, desktops and networks.

Veritas, which security software giant Symantec is acquiring for $13.5 billion, launched Backup Exec 10.0 for Windows Servers and Veritas Backup Exec 10.0 Suite.

Officials at a press event called the product release, with more than 100 new features, the most significant in the storage software outfit’s history. It comes at a time when data volumes are increasing by as much as 50 percent per year and compliance regulations are calling for more precise record retention and fast retrieval.

Gary Bloom, Veritas CEO, president and chairman, said the software offers faster-than-ever back-up to disk in an automated fashion, which is ideal for remote offices with few IT people to deal with storage issues.

“There is nothing we want to do more in this segment than help customers adapt to their growing needs,” said Bloom, who noted that Veritas is targeting SMBs to expand what NPD Software ranks as the company’s leading 53 percent market share. Veritas competes with EMC, IBM and others in the storage space.

Jeremy Burton, executive vice president of the product management group at Veritas, said 60 percent of a business’ intellectual capital exists on laptops and desktops. This presents tremendous challenges to smaller businesses lacking sufficient funds and technical support.

“Backup windows are shrinking,” Burton told the audience. “Everyone talks about how the economy has taken a dive but no one has stopped collecting data. Businesses of every size are facing this challenge.

To help protect and serve this data, Backup Exec 10.0 features centralized management and continuous data protection, an increasingly popular function that ensures data is never unprotected from synthetic and natural disasters.

Also, with “pure disk technology,” Burton said Backup Exec 10 is designed to communicate with disk-based storage: Changes are automatically captured and propagated to the Windows Server. Moreover, end users can restore their own files without IT support.

Another feature that Veritas is rolling out is the ability to perform synthetic back-ups. Instead of having to back-up a particular file each night, Backup Exec allows administrators to create a virtual image or a mirror of a back-up instead of an actual back-up, cutting data savings time from as much as three hours to one.

Perhaps most striking about all of the new storage trends is the move to disk-based storage from tape. Burton said Backup Exec is optimized for disk storage because Veritas believes the cost to store to disk is coming down.

Veritas officials called on Ralph Barber, CIO for Florida-based law firm Holland & Knight, to testify to the quality of Backup Exec 10.0. With 30 offices and no real centralized location, H&K has the challenge of matching the maintenance needs of its 118 servers with IT staff.

Barber said the centralized media characteristics of Backup Exec 10.0 allowed the data in the various offices to remain available in spite of the hurricane catastrophes in Florida last year. He also estimated the product was saving each office 20 man hours per week.

Veritas’ Bloom also answered a few questions about how the Symantec-Veritas merger might affect the company, following recent investor skepticism. He said there would be few layoffs, and that products like Backup Exec would stay in the data management product line, tucked in a separate line of business for Symantec when the deal is complete in the second quarter.

“When two leading companies get together, it’s about opportunities, not layoffs,” Bloom said.

Article courtesy of InternetNews.com