After a public beta and trial period with more than 70,000
participants over the past year, Microsoft is releasing version 2
of its Data Protection Manager (DPM) product to manufacturing. The
new version of Data Protection Manager has improved snapshots and
scalability, but it's still lacking key capabilities.
Beta users said they like the simplicity of DPM version 2 as
well as its tighter integration with other Microsoft products.
Ingram Leedy, managing partner of Elephant Outlook, a Microsoft
Exchange hosting provider, said he has struggled in the past with
backup products, including Symantec Corp.'s
Backup Exec and EMC Corp.'s Replication Manager, especially when
it came to troubleshooting.
"Backup has been just a nasty thing for us," he said. "At times
we've had a problem, other vendors point fingers at Windows and
vice versa, and it's been very frustrating."
Leedy, whose shop is almost 100% comprised of Windows hosts running
Exchange, said he's found the Windows approach to backup more
intuitive and easier to use than third-party products. The new
version of DPM supports disk-to-disk-to-tape (DDT) backup schemes
with a wizard that requires users to enter the frequency of
snapshots (full and incremental), points to the primary disk
storage and to the tape library, and automates the process from
there. (Compatibility also isn't much of an issue, since most disk
devices and tape libraries already support native Windows drivers.)
The DPM wizard also automatically generates warnings when capacity
is low and "cleans up" expired data behind the scenes.
"That little wizard does everything for you," Leedy said. "Other
backup software may have more whistles and bells, but DPM has been
simple and reliable for us, and that's what's most important."
The new version of DPM has also come a long way with
scalability. The number of full snapshots supported has jumped to
512 "express full" snapshots meant to be performed on a weekly
basis. The new version of DPM can also take incremental snapshots
as frequently as once every 15 minutes, for a total of 340,000
possible recovery points -- a far cry from the 64 total snapshots
per volume supported in the first version of DPM. The new version
can also support 300 client servers; version 1 could only support
30.
But DPM may still be playing catch-up in some important areas.
According to analyst Lauren Whitehouse of the Enterprise Strategy
Group (ESG), DPM still has a long way to go with policy-based
backup management and granular recoveries.
"They've done a lot when it comes to scalability and getting
data into the device," she said, "But they're still not as strong
when it comes to getting the data back."
According to Leedy, Exchange 2007 has improved search
capabilities within live mailboxes considerably, but he will have
to wait for the next version of DPM before he can search live and
backup data for a particular message or keyword. Restoring from
multiple sources at once looks to be even further off. According to
Bala Kasiviswanathan, director of branch and storage solutions at
Microsoft, "Policy-based restore is problematic as most customers
see risk in restoring multiple production servers at once."
The bottom line, according to Whitehouse, is that the starting
price point of just over $500 for DPM server licenses, the
simplified Windows interface and the new features, all add up to
making DPM Version 2 more attractive to Windows-only small and
medium-sized business (SMB) shops. (In addition to server licenses,
which cost $573, users also need enterprise agents for protecting
application servers at $426 each, or a standard file server agent
for $155.)
"The midmarket, where Windows is focused, is also where Backup
Exec lives," Whitehouse pointed out. Users are extremely reluctant
to switch backup products in most cases, but "depending on how
aggressive Microsoft's channel partners are, there could be some
swap-outs. It's an option for Microsoft if they want to be really
aggressive and take share in this market."