Intelligent Recovery

Veritas Software Corp., the market leader in storage-management software, introduced last week a version of its backup software that's designed to work better with Windows systems. Backup Exec 9.0 will handle Microsoft Exchange files 88% faster than its predecessor and also work with Windows Server 2003 deployments, Veritas says.

The software is Veritas' first version that can be managed by a Web browser. Prices start at $795, which includes an Intelligent Disaster Recovery feature, designed to help companies that experience a systems outage.

Mike Menard, a systems and data administrator, is depending on that feature to help his employer, tubing manufacturer Stanley Aviation Corp. Like many companies, Stanley Aviation--which counts among its customers Boeing and the federal government--doesn't want to spend the money to set up a remote site with mirrored servers to protect itself in case of a disaster. Its off-site strategy consists of shipping out backup tapes on a regular basis.

For a mirrored site, "we would need a secure line between here and a remote site," Menard says. "Management doesn't see the cost justification."

That's a risky approach, because the company sits at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Aurora, Colo., where fierce thunderstorms roll down the slopes and can turn into tornadoes. One storm crashed the company's systems on May 11. Because the crash took place on a Sunday, the company was able to get up and running in time for Monday's business.

Menard says he hopes to use Intelligent Disaster Recovery to improve online backup. This month, he plans to set up an automatic process that would move data to a designated backup server when an outage occurs. That would let him easily restore a server by installing a CD that's refreshed with backed-up data each day, instead of having to manually rebuild each server.

Earlier versions of Veritas' backup software sometimes lost files, so potential customers should make sure the vendor has fixed that problem, says Mike Karp, an analyst at research firm Enterprise Management Associates.

Karp also advises users to include a remote backup site in any business-continuity plan. "People have been cavalier about it for too long," he says. "Companies without one could be out of business if a real disaster hits."