The initial version of Symantec's hosted backup system supports only Windows desktops and laptops, Hanavan said. He declined to say when other operating systems would be supported.
Blou Baker, network administrator at Tucker Rocky Distributing in Fort Worth, Texas, plans to implement Symantec Online Backup by March. The wholesale sports equipment distribution company just completed a monthlong evaluation of a test version of Symantec's hosted offering on one of its five Windows servers. The remaining four servers continue to run BackupExec 11D.
Baker said growing concerns over off-site tape security by third parties, lengthening disk-to-disk and disk-to-tape backup cycles, and the expertise required to manage the company's Dell PowerVault 122T tape drive and REO 4000 storage-area network made hosted backup an attractive option.
"Sometimes, if I'm out, the correct tapes don't get put into the right slots. [Also] a lot of stuff is just [backed up] on weekends because we just don't have the time," said Baker. "The tape issue can be a problem for us."
During the test period, the hosted application backed up 172GB of data nightly on Baker's server. She said the hosted system performs speedier backups than the in-house server. It also uses a simple GUI console and provides strong Web-based remote management access capabilities. Baker said she wants to see "more teeth" and detail in future versions of the software's reporting function, however.
If all goes well after initial deployment, Baker expects that the new service will replace all of the BackupExec 11D software at Tucker Rocky.
Symantec today also announced software upgrades for Symantec Backup Exec 12 and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 8.
The enhanced Backup Exec 12 adds integration with Symantec's ThreatCon security alert system, integration with the Enterprise Vault archive database and support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008, said Hanavan.
The new version of the product is priced from US$995 per server.
The disk-based Backup Exec System Recovery 8 adds a new Granular Restore Option to restore on-site and off-site Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint data. Pricing for the software starts at US$1,095 per server and US$69 per workstation.
