Veritas is shipping version 9 of its Backup Exec, backup and storage software designed to appeal to small and medium-sized businesses.

Version 9 is designed to back up and recover data 88% faster than its predecessor, according to Veritas. It's tightly integrated with the .Net version of Windows, as well as Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 2003, allowing potentially high availability and an efficient operating system during a crisis. Veritas claims the newly Web-based app, priced at $795, can be installed in 10 minutes.

The leading independent storage software vendor apparently sees no opportunity to stray from the product's historical base. The smallest companies in the world, after all, could be E-commerce plays, and that means 24-hour uptime and the need for efficient protection of data.

David Freund, an analyst at research firm Illuminata, says "This software was already in the [smaller-firm] market, as far back as when Backup Exec was part of Seagate Software. And the basic backup engine in Windows has been Backup Exec, so Microsoft and Veritas have lots of history with each other."