Microsoft announced yesterday that it would launch a continuous data protection software product that also allows users to retrieve data themselves without the help of IT professionals. It will be the first disk-based software solution of its type and is expected to help companies save much time that is spent on data backup and recovery.
With Microsoft’s System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) users can back up data on Windows file servers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The saved data will be in a series of as many as 64 snapshots. It backs up data from local or remote file servers and runs on a server.
The product had been publicly beta-tested for nearly three months and users have responded positively, especially for its speed. One end-user said the backup process which usually lasted two days with tape, has now come down to 10 minutes with DPM. It had been distributed to 100,000 customers and was downloaded 50,000 times.
Ben Matheson, Group Product Manager at Microsoft, said that all the customers had appreciated DPM’s features which promised great commercial scope. He said the company was now looking to an August-end release. Disk-based back-up was made possible because of the declining cost of hard disks, he said.
With DPM Microsoft makes further advances into the storage arena and could prove to be a tough rival to vendors of pure-play storage independent software. Their slow yet certain march into the storage market began with the introduction of Server Appliance kit (a.k.a. Windows Storage Server) in 2000. With this kit, PC manufacturers were able to develop NAS systems for Windows networks. Within two years, Windows-based NAS systems grabbed 41 percent of the market. Currently, there are 19 vendors that make NAS systems to Microsoft’s specs. Market watchers say Microsoft could try to dominate the small and midsize business storage networks.
Although its existing storage technologies which are largely complementary to storage solutions by other vendors, DPM would mean direct competition for Symantec, Computer Associates, start-ups such as Mimosa Systems, Mendocino Software and storage resource management vendors AppIQ and Creekpath.
Microsoft’s Its past history of cooperating with storage ISVs may be fast forgotten as the company aggressively marches on into the storage market.
The product will have a price tag of $950. The next version of DPM, expected in two years will support Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, server imaging, and recovery of files on users' desktop drives.
