ANTenna Blog -- Storage

Backup Exec 2010, a new backup and deduplication service for midsized and growing businesses released today by Symantec is aimed at the explosive growth of data experienced by businesses of all sizes. The elimination of duplicate data promised by the company also promises to cut storage costs and reduce recovery time in the event of a disaster.

Symantec's announcement of Backup Exec 2010 cites Gartner numbers showing that as much as 70% of an organization's data is duplicate; more than that, the data hasn't been accessed in more than three months. The data is derived from large organizations, but the problem, and the need to address it, applies to businesses at every level.

Symantec's argument is that deduplication of data is an essential component of effectively and efficiently backing up and archiving data.

Think about it: How set up are you and your systems to remove duplicate data? How clear a picture, for that matter, do you have of just how much of your data is duplicated, and where those duplicates reside? How high are the storage costs the duplicated data incurs?

Symantec's approach to the issue includes elimination of duplicated data over WANs, dealing with duplication issues that arise from remote offices as well as backup and recovery sites.

Symantec's announcement states that client side deduplication also "reduces network utilization by up to 90 percent."

Likewise, recovery of backed up data will be speeded up after the elimination of duplicates,

Backup Exec 2010 includes unified archiving tools for Windows and Exchange, and also deduplicates server-side data, improving Exchange and Server performance.

Targeting midsized businesses, Backup Exec 2010 will carry a suggested price of $1,174 a media server license and Basic Maintenance. The Backup Exec 2010 Suites that include deduplication and archiving options have a suggested price of $2,708 - $3,888, with Basic Maintenance.

Worth a look, depending on your budget.

A podcast giving Symantec's view of the new release is accessible from this page.