On January 25 2010, Symantec released new versions of both its main back-up families: Backup Exec and Netbackup. The new releases; Backup Exec 2010 as well as NetBackup 7 goes out on February 1; improved in the areas of de-duplication, server virtualisation and archiving.

De-duplication: Based on the same de-duplication engine (PureDisk) both products offers savings in terms of capacity and performance. De-duplication is also available at (1) client/source level (2) backup server or (3)  controlling 3rd parties’ de-duplication appliances.

Backup Exec 2010: The entry-level backup offering for small and medium sized businesses now offers:

  • De-duplication as mentioned above
  • Unified archiving
  • Enhanced VMware and Hyper-V support
  • Enhanced Virtual Tape Library (VTL) support

NetBackup 7: The backup offering for enterprises now offers:

  • De-duplication as mentioned above
  • Enhanced backup and recovery of
  • Enhanced VMware and Hyper-V support

Symantec is preaching the de-duplication message by integrating the function in both its backup products. The software company is enabling customers to benefit from de-duplication at the backed-up data level without new hardware. And the savings in terms of capacity and performance are significant. But even sites with dedicated de-duplication appliances can be controlled by their Symantec backup applications.

Symantec has also made its licensing options more flexible, with per TB pricing in addition to traditional licensing as well as cheaper VTL options.

Comment: Should back-up and restore not be viewed as an exciting activity it still needs to be done. And it should be done efficiently, effectively, quickly and reliably. Innovation in terms of de-duplication is a non-trivial benefit that many IT professionals will want to explore. Furthermore, anyone managing virtualised server environments will want its back-up applications to be optimised for virtualisation.