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This review spotlights TWO leading backup products for SME environments, one from Computer Associates and the other from Veritas. This we know for sure: These are not the backup products your predecessors are used to.
CA's BrightStor ARCserve Release 11 for Windows and Veritas' Backup Exec for Windows Server v9.1 are full-featured products that go way beyond the fundamentals of data backup and management. Each embraces new technologies that are just now making their way into production environments. Each can also boast vastly improved integration with advanced technologies while providing intelligence for remote-systems management. However, despite similarities in features and functionality, they do differ on a few levels, which we will go over.
Installation And Setup
CA's and Veritas' tools both offer administrators a first-time wizard for setup and to start backups within minutes. ARCserve takes a three-paned approach that is similar to Microsoft's Outlook 2003 product, with a clean and easy-to-navigate interface. Backup Exec gives the user an interface that is straightforward and equally easy to navigate. Each product requires setup of an administrative account for the backup process to function. Backup Exec leverages existing user-account information from Active Directory for its administrator access. ARCserve requires the administrator to set up an administrator account used only by the product.
Performance
Performance among the products is similar for most users, though ARCserve now offers the ability for multiple simultaneous streams (up to four) to a single backup device. Streaming allows multiple jobs to service a single device at the same time. For devices able to handle large streams of data,...