QUESTION & ANSWER

SD 2004 preview: Bargain hunting for NetBackup

By Kevin Komiega, News Editor 18 Mar 2004 | SearchStorage.com

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SearchStorage.com: Since Veritas is up against heavy competition in user accounts, do users have any added leverage with Veritas when it comes to price? Do you have any specific advice for users looking to strike a bargain?

Jeff Harbert: Historically, users haven't had a lot of leverage when dealing with Veritas, but some things to consider are bulk purchases or site licenses. Generally, users get better pricing when purchasing more licenses. So, if users can forecast their licensing requirements beyond their immediate needs, it may benefit them to purchase more licenses initially. An alternative licensing option is the site license, which includes one universal license for an environment, rather than individual licenses for each option. Typically, site licenses are reserved for Veritas' largest customers, but these licenses provide the most flexibility and are usually the most cost-effective.

SearchStorage.com: Are there any obvious storage management tools or features missing from NetBackup? If so, what is Veritas doing to plug those holes?

Harbert: With the emergence of low-cost serial ATA disk arrays, there has been a tremendous push to incorporate disk in the backup environment. While Veritas has supported backup to disk for several years, NetBackup did not facilitate long-term storage of this data or easily allow for the creation of multiple copies of the backed-up data. Veritas addressed these shortcomings with the release of NetBackup 5.0. By incorporating Disk Staging and Synthetic Full Backups, NetBackup now integrates the speed and reliability of disk-based backups and recoveries with the durability and mobility of tape to offer a more robust backup solution.

Historically, users haven't had a lot of leverage when dealing with Veritas, but some things to consider are bulk purchases or site licenses. Users get better pricing when purchasing more licenses. Jeff Harbert Storage Consultant, GlassHouse Technologies

SearchStorage.com: Given its dominance in the backup market, does Veritas have much to fear from an EMC-backed Legato Systems?

Harbert: Veritas owns a significant share of the backup market and should continue to do so for some time. That said, EMC is a formidable competitor with significant resources, making Legato a stronger player than it was independently. Prior to the acquisition, Legato was floundering: they had a broad spectrum of data protection products, but didn't offer a clear integration strategy for these products. Now, with the engineering and sales resources that EMC brings to the table, Legato's products are part of a bigger, cohesive storage management picture.

SearchStorage.com: In your opinion, is Veritas' utility computing mantra confusing storage users?

Harbert: Like networking before it, storage is evolving into a separately managed environment consisting of standardized service offerings, tiered service levels, and comprehensive management and monitoring tools. Given Veritas' broad range of storage products, the company is able to address storage management issues at the host, SAN and device levels. As such, the concept of the storage utility is a logical fit with Veritas' offerings.

SearchStorage.com: What can users expect to learn from your upcoming presentation at Storage Decisions?

Harbert: When it comes to a NetBackup environment, there are several factors which directly impact the speed, reliability and success of backups and restores. My presentation is focused primarily on the tunable aspects of backup performance. During this session, I will use real-world examples to identify several pain points and their solutions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

SD 2004 preview: EMC makes Legato a backup threat

SD 2004 preview: Plugging the holes in Tivoli Storage Manager

Veritas retires Business Server for new version of NetBackup

Veritas upgrades Foundation Suite software

Tags: Product,  Software,  Enterprise Storage Planning,  Enterprise Storage Management,  VIEW ALL TAGS

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