BUYER’S GUIDE
E D R O T H
INTERACTIVE | RESEARCH & TRENDS
Backup Software
Deploy a backup strategy that will put
your mind at ease
One of a systems administrator’s most crucial sure such a solution supports your
the
LAB responsibilities is backing up—and being able
hardware. To save yourself head-
Windows 2000
aches and worry, make sure that
Magazine Network
to restore—the enterprise’s vital data. When the product includes mature im-
LAB SOLUTIONS
choosing backup software, you must not only evaluate the plementations of the features that
your mission-critical servers and
product’s backup features but also take a good look at its applications require. You don’t
restoration and disaster-recovery capabilities to ensure that want to beta test the backup soft-
ware you rely on.
they meet your requirements. The size of your environment, Analyze your overall backup
EXCHANGE & OUTLOOK | TOOLKIT
the types of platforms you want to your backup environment, verify and recovery strategy. Look at the
protect, and the type of backup that multiple concurrent consoles window of time you have to run
strategy you want to deploy are the are available. If you need flexibility, scheduled backups and the fre-
factors that will most influence you look for a product that supports quency and type of backup jobs
in determining which product best browser-based consoles so that you need to run. Then, evaluate
fits your needs. you can access the software from solutions that support both your
If you work in a large environ- anywhere on your network. scheduling needs and the hard-
ment, make sure that the solution Before you purchase a product, ware required to achieve the nec-
you choose can scale with the en- make sure it supports all the plat- essary throughput. Think about
vironment. The ability to handle forms you use and all the appli- how you want to organize media
multiple storage libraries and net- cations whose data you want to so that you can maintain disaster-
worked storage in shared and mul- protect. Many enterprise-class recovery and archive copies of
tihosted configurations is important backup products offer add-on media off-site and still perform
to companies with enormous agents to back up and restore to restores efficiently. If you decide on
amounts of data to back up. Per- a diverse array of OSs and can a scheme that’s difficult to handle
formance is also an important con- perform live database and messag- manually, look for features within
cern for large environments. To ing server backups. If you’re con- the software to help you automate
maximize throughput, some soft- cerned about backing up Windows the process.
ware packages leverage the multi- 2000 servers, find a product with After you consider all the fea-
ple drives and media in libraries by backup and restore capability for tures, you might still decide to
sending multiple concurrent data Active Directory (AD) and the Sys- spend some time evaluating a
streams and interleaving data from tem State. product demo to see how easy it
multiple sources to media. Such You might also want to consider is to configure and operate. Look
functionality translates to perfor- the benefits of integrated disaster- at some simple tasks, such as
mance gains on the backup side recovery options, which can help installing remote agent software
but can have negative implications you quickly and efficiently rebuild and configuring and scheduling
for restores, so make sure the fea- a crashed system. However, some backup jobs. You might also want
tures are user-configurable so that RAID controllers nullify the usabil- to look at some disaster-recovery
you can choose the best approach ity of disaster-recovery boot disks. scenarios to determine whether
for your environment. If you have Before you invest in an integrated the product is poised to bail you
more than one administrator for disaster-recovery option, make out of a worst-case scenario—that’s
where the largest Return on Invest-
Editor’s Note: The Buyer’s Guide summarizes vendor-submitted information. To find out about future Buyer’s ment (ROI) lies.
Guide topics or to learn how to include your product in an upcoming Buyer’s Guide, go to http://www
.win2000mag.com/buyersguide. To view previous Buyer’s Guides on the Web, go to http://www.win2000mag
—Ed Roth
.com/articles/index.cfm?action=buyersguides. InstantDoc ID 22003
www.win2000mag.com WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 15, 2001 47
BUYER’S GUIDE | B A C K U P S O F T W A R E
Compiled by Sue Cooper and Margaret Tracy
Contact Information Product Name Price Description
BakBone Software NetVault Starts at $495 Supports cross-platform implementation; lets you combine
858-450-9009 implementations from direct-attach storage to the full range of
877-939-2663 networked storage, including Network Attached Storage (NAS),
http://www.bakbone.com Storage Area Network (SAN), and IP storage
CommVault Systems CommVault Galaxy $2000 per Provides heterogeneous storage and data management; supports
732-870-4000 server Win2K, Windows NT, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL
http://www.commvault.com Server, Microsoft Cluster service, Oracle, Novell NetWare, UNIX,
Lotus Domino, Linux, and Network Data Management Protocol
(NDMP)–compliant NAS and SAN storage architectures
Computer Associates ARCserveIT Contact vendor Provides data protection, management, and data availability for
631-342-5224 for pricing any organization type, size, or business model; provides advanced
800-225-5225 device and media management on LAN-, WAN-, and SAN-based
http://www.ca.com solutions; is available in three editions and as the Advanced Stor-
age Option (ASO) to Computer Associates’ (CA’s) Unicenter TNG
Dantz Development Retrospect $795 Protects Windows and Macintosh servers, desktops, and note-
925-253-3000 Backup 5.5 books on a TCP/IP network; backs up only new and changed
800-225-4880 files; automatically backs up network-connected notebooks
http://www.dantz.com
Hewlett-Packard HP OpenView Contact vendor Comprehensive data-management solution for heterogeneous
800-637-7740 OmniBack II for pricing enterprise computing systems; provides fast, nondisruptive data
http://www.openview.hp.com backup and data recovery
Legato Systems Legato NetWorker 6.0 Contact vendor Provides data backup and recovery for all systems, databases, and
650-210-7000 for pricing enterprise servers; targets heterogeneous enterprise operations
http://www.legato.com with serverless backup and library sharing for LANs and SANs
NovaStor NovaBACKUP $130 Supports backup to local and network disk, tape, and removable
805-579-6700 media; features a scheduler and antivirus, encryption, and
800-668-2786 verification protection; supports Win2K and NT; includes image-
http://www.novastor.com based copy and recovery software and free technical support
NovaNET 8 Starts at $349 Tape backup software that supports Windows, NetWare, and
Linux systems; all versions include remote administration, tape-
autoloader support, and free technical support
NovaNET 8 Alliance $1999 Features unified support for Windows, NetWare, and Linux servers;
can back up multiple Windows and Linux workstations; features
tape-autoloader support; supports multiple backup devices;
manageable from a server or a desktop; lets you back up data to
a local or remote tape device; includes free technical support
NovaNET-WEB $59,995 for Provides backup through the Internet; features automated Web-
(Internet Backup) 1000 users based account setup, compression, encryption, versioning, and
a scheduler; client software supports Win2K, NT, Windows Me,
and Windows 9x systems; server software supports Win2K and
NT; special components are available for online backup service
providers
NovaNet-WEB $4495 for Works for remote sites and intranet users; features
(Intranet Backup) 50 users compression, encryption, versioning, and a scheduler; includes
client/server software; client software supports Win2K, NT, Win-
dows Me, and Win9x systems; server software supports Win2K
and NT; special components are available for Web-based distribu-
tion and management
48 SEPTEMBER 15, 2001 WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE www.win2000mag.com
Contact Information Product Name Price Description
Open Systems Management COSbackup $3000 to An automated backup, restore, and archive system for mixed
206-583-8373 $100,000 Windows and UNIX infrastructures; features full library management
http://www.osmcorp.com and support for stackers and autochangers; the master
module runs on a UNIX server; other modules run on any system
Quadratec Time Navigator 3.5 Starts at $4000 Enterprise-class backup, restore, and archiving software;
408-969-9880 features high scalability for virtually all backup architectures,
http://www.quadratec-software.com including client/server, NAS, and SAN
SCH Technologies HyperTape Contact vendor Performs backup and restore of data, databases, and applications;
513-579-0455 for pricing lets you access large-capacity, high-performance data storage
888-724-6736 through three-tier open architecture, centralized management,
http://www.sch.com and robotic management capabilities; supports more than
30 platforms
Storactive LiveBackup 2.0 $129 per client Provides automatic, realtime protection for Windows workstations;
310-302-7280 features wizards to facilitate easy data recovery and system restore;
888-352-9140 lets you centralize data storage, conduct remote system repairs,
http://www.storactive.com migrate user data, and create disaster-recovery images
Syncsort Backup Express 2.1.4 $3750 Backup and restore solution for Windows, UNIX, and NetWare
201-930-8200 environments; supports backup of SQL Server, Oracle, Exchange
http://www.syncsort.com Server, SANs, and NDMP-compliant NAS architectures; features
technical support and an identical GUI on all platforms
Tivoli Systems Tivoli Storage Contact vendor Protects and manages crucial business data in enterprisewide
512-436-8000 Manager for pricing SANs and traditional network environments
800-284-8654
http://www.tivoli.com/storage
UltraBac Software UltraBac 6.3 Starts at $495 Scalable backup and disaster recovery for Win2K and NT;
425-644-6000 per server features automatic open file handling, disk or tape operation,
http://www.ultrabac.com with unlimited built-in cascading, and device failover capability
workstations
VERITAS Software VERITAS Backup Exec $795 for a Targets small to midsized businesses; provides a GUI and wizards
650-335-8000 for Windows NT and single server to let you define and configure backup policies and schedules;
888-732-2021 Windows 2000 and $1395 for features built-in virus scanning and advanced device and media-
http://www.veritas.com an advanced management capabilities
server
VERITAS NetBackup $1995 Targets midsized to large businesses; provides scalability through
BusinessServer integration with Global Data Manager, which furnishes centralized
management and the ability to upgrade to NetBackup DataCenter;
features intuitive wizards, auto-discovery of tape devices and
libraries, database support, and high-speed direct I/O processing
against all VERITAS file systems
VERITAS NetBackup $5000 Provides comprehensive media-management support for all
DataCenter major tape libraries; features tape labeling capability, tape media
pool creation, reporting capabilities, and barcode support
Workstation Solutions Quick Restore $1800 to $7500 Supports mixed networks and more than 130 tape drives and
603-672-8600 libraries; features centrally administered backup and recovery,
800-487-0080 POSIX-compliant tape format, and Exchange Server and SQL
http://www.worksta.com Server support
www.win2000mag.com WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 15, 2001 49