Why not run ADSM Server at your remote sites to local robots and manage
them remotely?

I like some of the other ideas already expressed, especially the "create
the disk here and mail it there" approach.  Besides, how often does one
lose an entire disk?  Especially with mirroring?  In fact, simply
mirroring, hardware or software might prove cheaper than anything to do
with backup.  You would still do the backup, but only for DR and small
restores.

And is 450 MB/hour really that bad?  You could restore a whole 2 GB disk in
a little more than 4 hours.  How long is it taking you now to do this
restore?  Have you ever needed to do a restore like this?

I bring this all up to help, perhaps, shift the focus a bit.  We always
need to be concerned with the worst case, but remember it is the worst case
and probably doesn't happen that often.

You mention another product.  I don't think any of the competitors have a
product that is nearly as good as ADSM in most respects, especially for
day-to-day normal stuff.  Some tout the ability to handle client attached
tape drives, but who worries the tapes?

Just some ideas.

Kelly