VERITAS Software extends enterprise data protection leadership with new VERITAS NetBackup 5.0

A number of customer and channel initiatives are planned to usher in the new product and underscore VERITAS's market leadership in enterprise data protection.

With this new release of NetBackup 5.0 software, VERITAS fulfills the commitment made to regional customers to bring advanced data protection techniques, faster disk-based backup, and desktop and laptop data protection capabilities to its flagship enterprise data protection software. More than 400 enterprises throughout the Middle East have made previous versions of NetBackup their solution of choice for securing and managing critical information.

VERITAS Software Middle East is increasing awareness about the business benefits of NetBackup through an upcoming series of regional events on disaster recovery, as well as direct customer engagements and training sessions at its new in-house facilities at the Dubai Internet City.

"Building on our robust base of NetBackup customers in industries such as telecommunications, oil and gas, and financial services, this new version will enable our end-users to maintain the integrity and safety of their critical data, while making their IT operations more efficient and productive," commented Mike Hynes, regional director, VERITAS Software Middle East.

"VERITAS is committed to delivering technology innovation, such as synthetic backups, disk-based backups and the extension of data protection and synchronization to the edge of the network, that addresses the data management challenges our regional customers are tackling every day," he added.

New capabilities of VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 include:

Faster backup and recovery with disk-based data protection
• Synthetic backup: This new feature enhances restore times without the need to conduct a full backup by seamlessly melding together smaller backups into one. This helps reduce recovery time and tape media usage.

• Disk-based data protection: VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 software now supports a wide variety of low-cost, mid-range and high-end disk hardware platforms to allow faster backups and instant recovery from disk. Many disk vendors have partnered with VERITAS to deliver these industry-leading price-performance benefits.

Extended automation of manual tasks, saving more time and money

• Simplified snapshots: The VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 Advanced Client brings a variety of powerful snapshot techniques into one simple offering that helps organizations select the best snapshot backup and recovery method for their business needs and unique IT environment in just five clicks, helping to reduce the time it takes to back up and restore critical data. The FlashBackup feature enables the quick and easy backup and recovery of very large numbers of files. FlashBackup saves time over other methods that often require a full restore operation to obtain a single file.

• Desktop and laptop data protection: A major new component of VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 software is the new Desktop and Laptop Option, which enables the transparent protection of critical corporate data that resides on the thousands of laptops and desktops outside the data center, working with existing VERITAS infrastructure. The new option synchronizes real-time copies of a user's data among the user's multiple machines. Users can also restore their own data, helping to reduce costly IT interaction.

Increased availability of mission-critical data

• Disk-to-disk copy and disk staging: Disk-to-disk copy allows backup copies for as many as three secondary backup targets simultaneously, helping save time and costs when copies of data are needed for off-site archiving or processing. VERITAS NetBackup disk staging increases performance of backup and recovery procedures by leveraging the faster disk-based storage as an intermediary medium. VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 software shrinks the backup window, combining the performance of disk and longevity and portability of tape.

• Data Lifecycle Management: VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 software integrates with the new VERITAS Data Lifecycle Manager through the shared media management layer. Customers can leverage the disk staging features of NetBackup 5.0 with Data Lifecycle Manager software's support for management of a wide variety of storage media. No new hardware is required for implementation.

Availability
Supporting AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris and Windows, VERITAS NetBackup 5.0 software -- including the new Desktop and Laptop Option -- is scheduled for general availability in December 2003.