More Data Protection Manager (DPM)...

It's been a while since I mentioned DPM in this blog, but we shouldn't have long to wait for the release of DPM (no official announcement of the date yet, keep an eye on the DPM website), but judging by the interest I've had when talking to customers about it - it's sure to be a hit.  Everyone I’ve spoken to recently has been impressed with the abilities DPM has.  Features such as an alert when a new (unprotected) file server comes online are a benefit provided by close Active Directory integration so that administrators don’t have to go searching for file data to protect!  The product was built to handle disk-to-disk backups so it’s very focussed. DPM is a central Windows server which makes replicas of target files on its own disks. After the first backup, the following ones are incremental (snapshots) which means that only the changes are stored. Target files (managed nodes if you like) can be anywhere on the LAN or WAN, in the Data Centre or at a Branch Office.  This technology therefore enables you to consolidate to a central server and to secure that data automatically.

Some of the benefits are:
1. Backup and Restore is performed at disk speed rather than tape.
2. After the initial backup the subsequent ones are smaller and therefore faster.
3. Users can view the backups and initiate the restore from within Explorer – yes that’s right from Windows XP the users can do the work, not the helpdesk or the Operations department.
4. The official Top 10 benefits are here

Remember you will still need Tape to secure the DPM repository (disks).
If you combine DPM with the Brach Office features in Windows Server 2003 R2 then you could have a very powerful solution indeed.