Brightstor ARCServe Backup r11 Features Advanced Multi-Plexing

Computer Associates today rolled out its BrightStor ARCserve Backup Release 11 for Windows with support for Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN) environments.

Release 11 offers offers cross-platform support for Windows, NetWare, Linux, UNIX, and MAC OS X servers and clients and features a sophisticated high-speed multiplexing capability that significantly speeds the backup and restore process.

“The key challenge to any backup solution,” said David Liff, VP of world-wide marketing for Brightstor, “is backing up within a given window of time. This is difficult because of the volume of data involved.”

ArcServe’s multi-plexing technique allows multiple backups from multiple servers to be performed simultaneously on the same tape drive. It achieves significant performance increases, Liff said, by reducing “shoe-shining,” the phenomenon that occurs when tape drives pause and reposition while awaiting on data streams.

According to Liff, customers in the company’s beta program reported reductions in back-up times from six to 2 ½ hours with no reduction in restore times.

“That’s been a major concern with the channel partner community,” said Mike. “Multiplexing has been done before but has not been widely adopted because of limitations on restore. The concern is being able to do a restoration as fast as the backup.”

Next page: VSS Support

“The most impt thing to the channel is the very strong relationship we’re building with Microsoft,” said Liff. Release 11, he said was developed in conjunction with Microsoft. “We’ve implemented Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Services) services as an integral part of Brightstor.”

Release 11 works with VSS-aware applications and services to create “snap-shot” copies of open volumes and application data sets which allows backups to be performed without interrupting workflow or compromising the data.

Mike Natoli, Channel manager of Brightstor, said the VSS implementation “has been an amazing driving point with our partners. The ability to leverage Sever 2003 is a key caveat for them.”

Release 11 also offers: Disk-to-disk backup and disk-to-disk-to-tape staging; message-level, mailbox-level and database-level backup and restore; a “pre-flight check” feature which identifies issues with scheduled backup jobs before the administrator leaves; and complete transparent data protection for laptop and desktop users.

Next page: To be delivered exclusively through the channel

On January 14, CA executives held a pre-briefing on the products with channel and distribution partners in the company’s world-wide solutions centers and via a webcast. At that time, they announced a spif program that puts graded spif values on bundled solutions as well as the base product, allowing partners to earn up to $250 per sale depending on the nature of the solution.

“The response from our channel community has been overwhelming,” said Mike. He estimated that “well over 90 percent of our partners dealing the ArcServe are also Microsoft partners. The ability to leverage Windows Server 2003 is a key caveat for them. It’s been an amazing driving point with our partners.”

The three products, he said, will allow partners to deliver a single integrated backup and security solution for all servers, desktops and laptops throughout an organization instead of having to recommend multiple technology sets to do the job.

The products, he said, will be delivered to customers entirely through the channel.

Pricing for BrightStor ARCserve Backup r11 for Windows starts at $775.00 Pricing for Microsoft Small Business Server Edition bundle, which includes agents for Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Open Files and Windows workstations, starts at $995.00 for the bundle. Pricing for BrightStor ARCserve Backup for Laptops & Desktops r11 starts at $495.00.