ENTERPRISE BACKUP/RECOVERY/ARCHIVE SOFTWARE
VERITAS Software captured four Readers' Choice Awards, with three of those coming in the disaster recovery area. Taking the prize for Best Enterprise Backup, Recovery, and Archive Software is VERITAS Backup Exec.
VERITAS Backup Exec is a system of choice for high-performance, reliable Windows NT and Windows 2000 data protection—and a comprehensive solution for growing networks. As an industry-standard backup solution providing Microsoft-certified compatibility for Windows NT and Windows 2000 environments, Back-up Exec incorporates database protection and storage management options for today's highly specialized networking environments.
These agents are specifically designed for complex messaging and transactional intensive databases, and include options for storage system management and server disaster recovery that can be installed from any centralized backup server. Built-in virus protection and an intuitive user interface provide a reliable and easy-to-use data protection solution. Combined with the many available options, Backup Exec provides a complete, scalable solution for any size network and any level user.
| VERITAS SOFTWARE |
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VERITAS Backup Exec Mountain View, CA (650) 527-8000 www.veritas.com Price: $795 for the Server Edition; $1,195 for the Advanced Server Edition |
HIGH-AVAILABILITY SOLUTIONS
American Power Conversion's PowerStruXure won the Readers' Choice Award for Best High-Availability Solutions by a margin of three votes; following closely was NetIQ's AppManager.
PowerStruXure is a patent-pending, systematic approach to building a data center physical infrastructure that allows for a "pay-as-you-grow" scenario. This approach to data center support simplifies the design, building, and management of the physical infrastructure with an innovative, fully engineered and tested system.
The three initial core solutions that comprise PowerStruXure are a modular, scalable, N+1 redundant uninterruptible power supply (UPS); zoned, intelligent power distribution; and a next-generation enclosure. PowerStruXure incorporates simple "building blocks" that let you purchase and install additional capacity when needed, therefore reducing the upfront capital investment required to undertake data center projects. The adaptability of the architecture allows for a variation between a zoned or centralized design based on the application of the project.
The runner-up, Net IQ's AppManager, is a widely adopted solution for managing, analyzing, and reporting on the health, performance, and availability of your mission-critical Windows and Unix servers and applications, from the physical hardware to business-critical server applications.
| POWERSTRUXURE |
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American Power Conversion (APC) West Kingston, RI (401) 789-5735 www.apcc.com/powerstruxure Price: starts at $15, 000 |
| RUNNER-UP AppManager |
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NetIQ Corp. San Jose, CA (408) 856-3000 www.netiq.com Price: Based on the number and type of managed systems and applications. Agents start at $600 and consoles start at $2,500 |
ENTERPRISE BACKUP/RECOVERY HARDWARE
Capturing nearly 50 percent of the vote in the Best Enterprise Backup and Recovery Hardware category, Quantum Corporation's SDLTtape 220 tape drive is clearly a favorite among our readers.
The SDLT 220 tape drive operates at capacity of 110GB and a transfer rate of 11MB/sec (native uncompressed), with future generations leading up to more than one terabyte of storage capacity and a 100 MB/sec data transfer rate per data cartridge.
Super DLTtape technology incorporates a number of important technology innovations, including:
- The Pivoting Optical Servo (POS) system, which uses optical servo tracks on the back coating of the tape to eliminate the need to pre-format tapes.
- Advanced Metal Powder (AMP) technology, which uses durable metal powder technology to nearly triple recording densities.
- The Magneto Resistive Cluster or MRC head, a cluster of small, cost-effective magneto resistive tape heads that can deliver higher data transfer rates and greater density than traditional magnetic heads of equal size.
- Super DLTtape products offer nearly triple the storage capacity per cartridge, and almost double the data transfer rates, providing faster access to data and improved reliability and durability.
| QUANTUM SDLT 220 |
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Quantum Corp. Milpitas, CA (408) 944-4000 www.quantum.com Price: MSRP starting at $4,100, depending upon configuration |
LOCAL BACKUP/RECOVERY/ARCHIVE SOFTWARE
VERITAS Software won its second of three Readers' Choice Awards for disaster recovery products in the category Best Local Backup, Recovery, and Archive Software. The winning entry is VERITAS NetBackup Professional.
VERITAS NetBackup Professional provides a comprehensive data protection solution for desktops and laptops. The product allows a business of any size to easily deploy automatic data protection for all users. It delivers fast, non-intrusive backups—even over low-speed connections. NetBack-up Professional is easy to set up, and administration is centralized: you can manage and report on multiple servers from a single console.
With NetBackup Professional, administrators can control network traffic and balance backup workload by configuring the number of concurrent backups and defining backup windows through user profiles. NetBackup Professional groups together users with similar data protection requirements. By doing this, administrators can set backup schedules, filtering criteria, user rights, and administrator contact information for all users in the profile.
| VERITAS NETBACKUP PROFESSIONAL |
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VERITAS Software Mountain View, CA (650) 527-8000 www.veritas.com Price: Based on a per-client model, starting at $69 per client |
REPLICATION/DATA AVAILABILITY SOLUTIONS
VERITAS Software, obviously a popular provider of disaster recovery products, won its third Readers' Choice Award for Best Replication, Data Availability Solutions, with Volume Replicator.
VERITAS Volume Replicator provides a robust storage-independent disaster recovery solution when data loss and prolonged downtime cannot be tolerated. Volume Replicator reliably, efficiently, and consistently replicates data to remote locations over any IP network for maximum business continuity. The product provides the foundation for seamless availability across sites, whether downtime is a result of disaster, site failure, or a planned site migration.
Volume Replicator performs comprehensive volume group replication in both synchronous and asynchronous modes to ensure data integrity and consistency, scales to support up to four secondary replication sites, provides an intuitive console that assists with configuring and monitoring, supports most database management systems including SQL Server, and replicates between hardware platforms to eliminate vendor-specific storage limitations.
| VERITAS VOLUME REPLICATOR |
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VERITAS Software Mountain View, CA (650) 527-8000 www.veritas.com Price: Starts at $4,000 |
UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SYSTEMS
When you're looking for an uninterruptible power system (UPS), our readers might suggest that you consider products from American Power Conversion (APC). APC's Symmetra Rack-Mount (RM) Power Array won the Best UPS category by capturing nearly 70 percent of the votes.
The Symmetra RM provides the proven and patented Symmetra Power Array technology in a rackmountable form. With more servers, storage products, and other mission-critical IT equipment becoming rack-based, the need is increasing for high-availability, innovative rack-based power solutions. Symmetra RM meets this need with scalable, redundant units from 2-6 kVA N+1available in just 8U of rack space, and 8-12kVA N+1(or 16kVA N only) units available in just 15U of rack space.
Symmetra RM is an ideal solution for branch office locations, small- and medium-size business datacenters, internetworking and telecom racks, and all other high availability applications within this power range. In addition to the advantages of hot-swappability and redundancy, rack users can also benefit from Symmetra's self-diagnosing, scaleable components and integrated Web/SNMP management features.
| SYMMETRA RACK-MOUNT POWER ARRAY |
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American Power Conversion (APC) West Kingston, RI (401) 789-5735 www.apcc.com Price: Starts at $2,365 |
