BE vs Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM)
A good number of people have been asking me about DPM recently and I’d just like to set the record straight.
DPM delivers backup and recovery, continuous data protection for Microsoft application and file servers for disk and tape media. DPM protects Windows Servers by capturing data changes with application-aware, block-level agents, providing a disk and tape data protection solution. – or so they say!
Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
Allows for the recovery of individual emails from Full, Incremental or Continuous backups of Exchange.
DPM can recover individual email messages and mailboxes too. But it is a two step process not fully managed by DPM. DMP can restore the mailbox but then the user has to recover individual items manually using exMerge.
Backup Exec protects both continuously and traditionally, as well as giving the users the ability to recover anything from a single mail message, a mailbox or the entire Exchange database – automatically.
Application / Platform Support
Allows for the protection of critical applications with specific focus on the needs of the business.
DPM can only protect Windows resources.
Backup Exec supports other Operating Systems (not just Windows), various forms of Unix, Linux, NetWare and even MAC OSX. BE also protects non-Microsoft applications such as Oracle, Lotus Notes, DB/2 and SAP as well as remote users (BE can do this with users either connected or disconnected to the network – DPM needs users to be connected and accessible to the DPM server.
Integration with Archiving and Anti-Virus / Security Software
Integration with other software allows a solution to provide additional benefits and be more effective.
DPM supports running concurrently with most Archiving and Anti-Virus software in the market today; although provide no direct integration.
Backup Exec offers direct integration with Anti-Virus software. ThreatCon initiated backup allows BE to monitor the threat landscape, should the ThreatCon level rise to critical levels. Backup Exec System Recovery enhances the overall solution not only for Data Protection for small businesses and/or laptops and desktops, but server System Recovery as well.
Pedigree, Market Share and Brand
Any kind of solution should be fit for purpose, the best solution for the business.
Microsoft is the leading name in IT – however, how many people have heard of DPM? It’s not core to Microsoft’s business or skills for that matter
Symantec is the leader in the backup market with 20 years experience (Microsoft 2years at best). 47% of the world businesses are backed up with Symantec products. BE has 2 million customers worldwide – how many does Microsoft DMP have? What have Microsoft used to back up their critical data and applications themselves for the past 10 years or so? That would be Backup Exec!
There is no such thing as a free lunch
Symantec is simply Best of Breed in security, availability and compliance from the Desktop to the Data Centre. Symantec is way out in the lead in Data Protection with a 25% lead ahead of the next provider – IBM. Microsoft as a niche player in each of these markets – they really don’t do a good job, but they do make us think that what they do it “good enough”.
Whatever Microsoft are offering not only is it NOT “good Enough” but it won’t be free either.
Backup Exec 12.5 Granular Recovery
One of the really cool functions of BE is the Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). By the way, anytime you need more information on any aspect of BE please see the Backup Exec for Windows Servers Administrator’s Guide. In fact, don’t take my word for it, download from here:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/308400.htm
Just a few tips to help you get the best out of BE’s GRT:
- Review the requirements for staging locations in the Administrator’s Guide.
- You must use a staging location for GRT-enabled jobs in the following scenarios:
- You back up to or restore from a volume with file size limitations.
- You restore granular items from tape.
- You run an off-host backup job.
- You are better off creating a separate backup-to-disk folder specifically for all GRT enabled backup jobs – this really simplifies media management. You will need to manage the IMG media that GRT enabled jobs create differently than other backup-to-disk media.
- Don’t allocate a maximum size for backup-to-disk files. If you do then you are in danger of getting failed jobs because of low disk space. This is because the backup-to-disk file often occupies extra space since GRT information is stored in IMG media and Backup Exec will only create a backup-to-disk file that is as large as the size that you specified.
- If you are using frequent incremental GRT enabled jobs it is a really good idea to run a full GRT enabled backup job every so often. This is because each incremental GRT enabled job requires a small amount of internal storage. If this storage amount increases too much, it can affect system resources. When you run the full GRT enabled backup job, you make available the storage space that has accumulated from incremental jobs.
12.5 delivers GRT for Exchange, Active Directory, SharePoint Server, and SharePoint Services which gives you the ability to recover granular data quickly and efficiently from a single-pass backup. It means, for example, that you do not have to run Exchange mailbox backups to recover granular data, including documents, list items and user attributes, or properties.
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