LAS VEGAS — Symantec Corp.’s backup appliances aren’t new. But as of this year’s Symantec Vision 2012, they’re getting a significant upgrade.
Both the SMB-ready Backup Exec 3600 and the Enterprise-friendly NetBackup 5220, have been updated to support the most recent backup software from SYmantec [Nasdaq: SYMC].
NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012 are now available on each of their respective devices.
One of the most interesting of the feature updates is the implementation of Symantec’s own NetBackup Accelerator in the NetBackup 5220.
“We’re using some core IP technology that we have to look at the file system and to transform a traditional full backup and make it happen in the time of an incremental,” says Peter Elliman, senior manager of product marketing for NetBackup.
“If you can do 100-times faster backups, that problem called the ‘backup window’ disappears.”
What Elliman is referring to is the constant struggle between maintaining healthy and regular backups of mission-critical servers and the toll those backups take. Backups that take over 24 hours, which aren’t uncommon, interrupt the flow of business by taking servers offline at inconvenient times.
“In a poll, 72 per cent of our customers said they would switch backup products if you could double the speed,” says Elliman.
Dawn Campbell is the product manager for managed backup services at Wayne, Penn.-based disaster recovery firm SunGard Corp. In a field that requires many different configurations and scalability, Campbell found nearly everything she needed in NetBackup appliances. “What’s kept me up at night is picking the right solution that will protect our customers,” says Campbell. “NetBackup met 99.9 per cent of our backup requirements.”
And in an effort to serve those requirements, that flexibility is key. “I need a platform that I can always be assured will meet my clients needs,” says Campbell. “Something that will be consistent across a variety of customers, small, medium and large.”
And NetBackup is doing well for Symantec. It may not be a reinvention of the wheel, but it has the qualities of a unique product in how tuned the hardware is to the software Symantec makes. Elliman says the end product is so seamless, it’s as easy as “set it and forget it.”
“We’ve got over 35 per cent of market share for our two products, NetBackup and Backup Exec,” he says.
And that market share is pushing growth into new markets.
Distribution of the NetBackup and Backup Exec has expanded to four more countries this year and Symantec plans to add even more in the next few years.
