Symantec touts NetBackup 7, Backup Exec 2010, 'de-duplication everywhere'

Computerworld - Symantec Corp. today announced NetBackup 7 for enterprises and Backup Exec 2010 for midsize companies, both of which offer data de-duplication and archiving technology.

Symantec said the new versions of its popular backup software suites are the first to offer granular data recovery of Microsoft Exchange, SQL and Active Directory in VMware and Hyper-V environments from a single backup, meaning they also enable incremental backups. Separately, Backup Exec 2010 also adds support for Microsoft Windows 2008 R2, Hyper-V R2, Exchange 2010, Windows 7 and VMware vSphere 4.0.

This is the first time Symantec has offered de-duplication across its entire line of backup products.

"You're bringing enterprise-class technology -- de-duplication -- into the midmarket, and that drives really great storage and cost savings," said Matthew Lodge, senior director of product marketing at Symantec.

Enabling the data de-duplication function on both NetBackup 7 and Backup Exec 2010 requires only a single check mark in a pop-up box, Lodge said.

Both products implement the feature at three levels: Source or client de-duplication, which compresses data at the backup server; media server de-duplication, which aggregates de-duplication for numerous backups; and third-party appliance de-duplication for virtual tape libraries and other disk-based backup appliances.

"This gives you the ability to manage and control the backups from within the backup application, even though they're stored on a third-party device," Lodge said, pointing to appliance partners such as Quantum Corp. and ExaGrid Systems Inc. "Our thought process was de-duplication everywhere, but you have to make sure you manage that from a single place -- in the backup application."

Symantec said it has also improved NetBackup's support for virtual servers and storage, particularly around granular recovery or virtual server backups, which allows the recovery of virtual server environments right down to a single file or e-mail, Lodge said.

Symantec has introduced VMware Block Optimization on NetBackup 7 for virtual machine backups. Block Optimization creates a single image for a virtual machine and tags blocks that are not being used so that they are excluded from the backup process. That can improve performance as much as 10% to 20%, Lodge said.