Veritas Steps Closer to Utility Computing

NEW YORK—With NetBackup 5.0, Veritas Software Corp. is taking "the next step in our journey toward utility computing," said Chairman, CEO and President Gary Bloom at a press conference here today.

The new version, in beta since this summer and scheduled to ship next month, has many new features, including backups that automatically resume in case of interruptions, new security options, vastly increased file sizes and capacity, the ability to create full backups from prior incremental ones, and desktop and laptop backup support, officials said.

Qualcomm Inc. has been testing NetBackup 5.0 since August, CIO Norm Fjeldheim said. The San Diego company backs up about 300 terabytes of data from Hitachi Ltd. storage, and hopes to slow that growth through better storage utilization by using Veritas products. "Were running out of nighttime. … Backups are now spilling over into the day and interrupting our work," he said.

Policy management features help Qualcomm determine which data—such as .MP3 files—not to back up, he said. Overall, Version 5.0 is "a huge leap forward for us," Fjeldheim said.

Other major parts of Mountain View, Calif.-based Veritas utility computing roadmap are Data Lifecycle Manager 5.0, previously known as Data Migrator, and the first version of CommandCentral Service, previously code-named Service Manager, officials said.

Data Lifecycle Manager, similar to other storage companies concept of information life cycle management (ILM), uses policies and searching/indexing options to help users manage data from its creation to use to archiving to elimination—all organized by business structures, not technology ones, said Mark Bregman, executive vice president.

Besides traditional data types, the DLM also helps to manage e-mail, attachments and, in the future, things like mobile devices and instant messaging, he said.

Veritas does not plan to enter the content management aspect of information life cycle management, as rival EMC Corp. has, Bregman said in an interview here. Of content management, he said, "its a separate thing that people have to do or need to do. Its the subtle difference between ILM and DLM."

However, true utility computing is about 18 to 24 months from being mature, he said.

Looking forward, NetBackup will soon support the 64-bit Itanium processor on Linux, and DLM will support platforms and applications beyond its current Windows and Exchange focus, he said.

Regarding Veritas other products, NetBackup 4.3 is now the oldest version still supported in that series; the midrange product Backup Exec 9.0 is now shipping in Version 9.1 to support Itanium and desktop/laptop backups, with Version 9.2 due early next year bringing undisclosed new features; and SAN Volume Manager is also due early next year, he said in the interview.