Summer upgrades for Computer Associates International Inc. and Veritas Software Corp. backup and recovery programs will help users link existing suites with other technologies.
Features in CAs BrightStor Enterprise Backup 10.5 and Veritas Bare Metal Restore 4.6 are also part of the trend of focusing on data restores.
With CAs upgrade from Version 10, users can set up policy-based job scheduling, linked with BrightStor Storage Resource Manager and related products, said Ed Cooper, CA product manager, in Islandia, N.Y.
Enterprise Backup also now links to Unicenters software distribution feature, for sending backup configurations to remote sites, and to Microsoft Corp.s Windows Server 2003, through the Volume Shadow Copy Service, Cooper said. In addition, it works with software from switch makers Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and McData Corp. and now has a feature for verifying service-level agreements, officials added.
The new version ranges from $5,000 to $20,000, Cooper said. Available now, it includes five licenses for BrightStor Enterprise Portal.
User reactions are mixed. “I really like the speed and console that allows me to manage all of the different machines,” said Greg Taffet, CIO of MxEnergy Inc., a natural gas reseller in Stamford, Conn.
Conversely, “I havent been terribly impressed,” said Matt Paull, systems administrator at Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., in Scottsdale, Ariz. “For the most part, I can get away with Microsoft, the built-in backup.”
For its part, Veritas, of Mountain View, Calif., last week announced Bare Metal Restore 4.6, which can restore a Windows server onto different hardware from the original, said Richard Harrison, Veritas product manager.
With the new feature, administrators dont have to wait for an identical server to arrive, and it is useful in cases where the original equipment isnt made anymore. Bare Metal Restore 4.6 requires Veritas high-end NetBackup software, Harrison said.
Until next quarter, the new version will cost $695 for Windows licenses and $895 for Unix licenses. After that, licenses will cost $900 for Windows and $1,000 for Unix, Harrison said.