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Source: Gartner Research
As the amount of storage being backed up continues to grow =
exponentially and
tight budgets increase the importance of improving staff productivity =
and
utilization rates, the following trends have become obvious: the move =
to
enterprisewide backup/restore solutions; the ubiquitous deployment of
replication technology; the deployment of SAN-attached tape and disk; =
and a
renewed interest in HSM technologies that manage data growth and =
circumvent
the architectural limits of Exchange. Comments on companies in each of =
the
four quadrants follow. Leaders Quadrant: Veritas Software, IBM/Tivoli,
Legato Systems and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are delivering products with =
broad
server, tape and storage support, and with software agent support for
popular ISV packages such as Oracle, Exchange, Notes, SAP and SQL =
Server.
These products also offer consolidated administration, scalability,
deployment flexibility and HSM options to improve storage utilization =
rates
and staff productivity. Veritas and Tivoli are the current market =
leaders,
delivering highly scalable solutions with good to excellent support. =
Veritas
continues to lead the market with its NetBackup product, capturing
enterprise backup leadership in 2000 based on new license revenue. =
Backup
Exec is positioned as a workgroup product. Veritas leads in integration =
with
all of the key storage array vendors' replication technologies, and the
company offers the related data protection options that customers may
require for a complete data management solution, including e-mail =
attachment
archiving, HSM and Internet backup products. Veritas' competitors have =
made
significant strides in filling the technology gap and, with improved
execution, could still change their positioning in this quadrant, =
especially
when Veritas' high pricing is an issue. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager =
(TSM)
still benefits from the large IBM sales force and partner community,
although the delivery of new functionality has been late. Legato =
launched
NetWorker v.6.01, which provides a new indexing architecture that has
apparently addressed many of the code quality issues that caused =
customer
dissatisfaction with earlier releases. The company has aggressively =
worked
to move customers to the new release and has improved its customer
satisfaction ratings. The new company management team has delivered =
modest,
but steady, revenue growth, stabilizing the financial picture, but =
leaving
improved marketing as the next challenge. NetWorker supports the Change
Journal feature in Windows 2000 to improve the performance of =
incremental
backups and minimize CPU utilization, the GEMS Console is now available =
for
global management of NetWorker servers, and media management =
functionality
has been strengthened through the acquisition and increased integration =
of
AlphaStor technology from SCH Technologies. HP continues to =
successfully
sell Omniback II into its installed base. Scalability and code quality
problems that affected earlier versions of Omniback II appear to have =
been
addressed with Omniback II v.4.0, although it must still be
market-validated. The product is getting good ease-of-use and reporting
rankings, now supports NDMP v.2, and offers a new instant-recovery
capability to manage recovery from split-mirror images. Challengers
Quadrant: To be in the Challengers quadrant, a vendor must not only =
have
vision, but also the ability to become a significant player in the =
market.
Vendors in this quadrant should be able to move eventually into the =
Leaders
quadrant if they deliver on both vision and execution. EMC's EMC Data
Manager (EDM) backup solution has seen strong growth, with an increased
company sales focus, as EMC organizes for a stronger role as a storage
software provider outside of the Symmetrix environment. One-third of =
the
product's customer base does not have Symmetrix in the backup =
environment
today, and 46 percent of the customers purchased the software only, not =
the
hardware/software solution package (although a Symmetrix disk is =
required
for staging of backup on the backup server). EDM is being integrated =
into
the suite of EMC software management solutions, with the first and =
tightest
integration being with the new EMC ControlCenter Replication Manager =
product
announced October 2001. Computer Associates International (CA) has =
recently
introduced its BrightStor Enterprise Backup solution, which has the =
look and
feel of BrightStor ARCserve backup, a product that the company now =
positions
as a workgroup solution. BrightStor reads and writes tapes that are
ARCserve-compatible. This suggests an early focus on retaining ARCserve
customers moving into enterprise-class solutions and on improving =
support
capabilities, which have been a weakness in the past. The company is =
also
looking to move the installed base of Alexandria and UniCenter Advanced
Storage Option customers to the new BrightStor backup product. The =
product
is new and without references at this time, but the vision looks good =
and CA
has the resources to bring to bear on this market. Visionaries =
Quadrant:
Both SyncSort with Backup Express and CommVault with Galaxy have strong
product architectures, solid NDMP support, and about the same new =
license
revenue volume, which remains too small to move them into the =
Challengers or
Leaders quadrant at this point, but both are gaining increased =
attention in
the customer and vendor communities. SyncSort has increased its =
investment
in marketing, advertising and strategic-partner development, and this =
is
beginning to pay off in greater market visibility, which must now be =
turned
into more customers and a larger revenue stream. The company benefits =
from
the profitable sort business, which can now fund the increased move =
into the
backup market. CommVault Galaxy gained a lot of attention in the market =
when
first released because of its Exchange agent, which supports individual
message- and mailbox-level restores without making multiple copies of =
each
message. Similarly, its Notes agent supports document-level restores. =
Other
vendors now have "good enough" functionality in the message restore =
area or
are promising it in the near term. Unlike SyncSort, CommVault has had =
to
seek funding and has attracted some powerhouse investors, Microsoft =
being an
obvious example, but it has yet to turn these relationships into =
significant
revenue growth. Both vendors have strong products that they need to =
continue
to improve, but growing the channel will be even more important for =
them if
they wish to move into the Challengers quadrant. Niche Players =
Quadrant:
Vendors in this quadrant have credible technology and have some =
visibility
in the marketplace, as measured by Gartner client inquires. Atempo (aka
Quadratec), with Time Navigator, is looking to move from being a =
European
supplier (it is based in France) to more of a worldwide player. The =
company
has opened offices in California and captured the contract for =
developing
the NDMP agent to be included with Compaq Computer's StorageWorks NAS
Executor servers. Compaq resells Time Navigator in Asia/Pacific. Atempo =
is
looking to focus development on features that will make the product =
more
appealing to customers running IT as a service, and it has delivered =
some
features to that end, such as support for secure access through =
firewalls
where necessary and role-based access controls. BakBone first released =
the
NetVault product to the U.S. market in 2000, but it was based on =
technology
selling in Europe and Japan prior to that. The product is currently the =
only
one listed that supports NDMP v.4. Finding partners, finding channels =
and
gaining market visibility remain challenges that are always more =
difficult
to address than technology. Tantia Technologies' (aka Harbor) Network
Storage Manager's (NSM's) market penetration has been limited by its =
focus
on mainframes, although the company recently released a Windows NT/2000
version of the product. The company offers a solid product for =
mainframe
customers looking to back up open-systems servers. The new Windows =
solution
should offer Tantia the opportunity to sell deeper into that base. =
Selling
outside the mainframe environment will challenge the company to develop =
new
channels.

Kvedja/Regards
Petur Eythorsson
Taeknimadur/Technician
IBM Certified Specialist - AIX
Tivoli Storage Manager Certified Professional
Microsoft Certified System Engineer

peddi AT itn DOT is

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