Symantec Moves LiveState Into Backup Exec Family

Starting Tuesday, LiveState Recovery will be called Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery, said Michael Parker, global manager for Backup Exec product marketing. "We're bringing it into the Backup Exec family," he said.

LiveState Recovery is a bare metal restore application that provides fast, disk-based recovery for enterprise servers, workstations and desktops by restoring the operating system and the data in case of a complete system failure. LiveState was Symantec's primary storage application before its acquisition of Veritas in late 2004.

Parker said Symantec also is integrating the functionality of two optional modules into the base application. The modules include Restore Anywhere (for recovery of a downed server, workstation or desktop to a dissimilar system) and LightsOut Recovery (for remote recovery of a server or system without manual intervention).

Also new is a one-to-one push deployment capability, said Brian Wistisen, senior product manager for Backup Exec System Recovery. The feature lets an administrator or solution provider push the Backup Exec System Recovery agent to a remote system in order to create that system's recovery points in a hands-off fashion, he said.

Backup Exec System Recovery, which incorporates the two modules and push deployment capability, carries a list price of $1,095. The former LiveState Recovery Server Edition, without the two modules, listed for about $1,900 per server.

Symantec also has made similar technical enhancements to its workstation and desktop editions and unveiled a new version, Backup Exec System Recovery Windows Small Business Server Edition. It has all the features of the server edition but is targeted at Windows Small Business Server users that have only one or two servers, Parker said.

Keith Norbie, director of sales for the storage division at Nexus Information Systems, a Plymouth, Minn., solution provider, said he's not sure if renaming LiveState Recovery as Backup Exec System Recovery is a good idea.

"Customers will look at Backup Exec System Recovery as an add-on module to Backup Exec," Norbie said. "That will give it a specific branding. But many customers will want to use LiveState as a stand-alone application. If a customer uses CommVault, Tivoli, Legato or even Veritas NetBackup, will they want to add something with the Backup Exec name? Probably not, compared to if I tell them I have LiveState."

Still, Symantec is doing a great job with evolving its LiveState product, especially as customers look to virtualize their infrastructures with applications such as VMware, according to Norbie.

"Adding those optional modules into the base version of LiveState is very complementary to VMware," he said. "It makes a good option for VMware's peer-to-peer tools for customers who like to add physical servers and bare metal recovery capability. For customers doing Backup Exec and VMware, this gives an interesting new tool for bare metal recovery."

New editions for Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition, Backup Exec System Recovery Windows Small Business Server Edition and Backup Exec System Recovery Desktop Edition are available starting on Tuesday.