Veritas Takes It Up A Notch With Backup Exec Suite 10

The Mountain View, Calif., software vendor last week unveiled Backup Exec Suite 10, which includes a new version of Backup Exec and for the first time packages it with Replication Exec 3.1, formerly known as Veritas Storage Replication; and Storage Exec 5.3, formerly known as Veritas StorageCentral.

Central to the release is Backup Exec 10.0, which includes new features aimed at the small and midsize enterprise space. Targeting that space with enhanced features is more important than any customer concerns about the pending acquisition, said Eryck Bredy, president of Bredy Network Management, a Woburn, Mass.-based solution provider and Veritas partner.

Bredy's company served as one of the beta testers of the new version of the Backup Exec software.

"I've got people who are really, really pumped on the feature set," Bredy said. "If people like the features, they're not concerned about the merger.

If anything, with Symantec's focus on SMBs, it could be better for Backup Exec. If anyone is concerned about the merger, it's people who focus on the enterprise side."

Among the new offerings is Central Administration, an optional tool for centralizing backups from multiple locations, which allows customers to use a single interface to log on and manage backups from multiple remote sites.

Also new are disk-based backup tools to cut the time and resources required for backups.

These include tools for backing up data to a disk-based virtual tape library, creating synthetic full backups from incremental ones to reduce the time needed to back up a data set, and moving the backup processing off the host server to a separate server. Veritas also is beefing up Backup Exec's Linux and Unix support.

The storage software vendor also unveiled Backup Exec QuickStart, an entry-level version specifically for server OEMs with some key features disabled. Solution providers can sell software keys to turn on those features.

Rick Marcotte, president and CEO of DLT Solutions, a Herndon, Va.-based government solution provider and Veritas partner, called Backup Exec 10.0 a major initiative for Veritas.

Many of the new features in Backup Exec 10.0 are similar to those found in enterprise-class backup software such as Veritas' Net Backup, but can now be applied to smaller businesses in the Microsoft space, Marcotte said.

This is important as smaller customers face the need to work with HIPAA requirements, Department of Defense regulations and other compliance issues, he said.

"Whether customers use Unix, NetWare or Windows, these regulations apply," he said. "So there's more and more need for these features in smaller organizations."