IT Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Microsoft has shipped Data Protection Manager 2010, an advanced backup-and-restore solution designed specifically for supporting Windows file and application servers and workstations. System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 allows on-going,non-disruptive backup of both physical and virtual systems to onsite or off-site hard disks plus off-line backup to magnetic tape, and permits fast, easy-to-manage restoration of entire servers or single files. Data Protection Manager's disk support provides the performance and dependability required to preserve your vital business information without disrupting network operations, while DPM's tape compatibility makes long-term archiving costs low and helps ensure adherence to contractual or legal retention requirements.

Most small businesses continue to depend on obsolete, tape-centric backup and restore technology. In the event of a serious system breakdown, this can result in substantial income loss due to prolonged system downtime and, in the worst case, lost information. Tape-only protection procedures are unreliable because tape media is subject to wear and tear and requires a tightly maintained physical environment. Microsoft reported a whopping 17% failure rate when using mag tape to archive their in-house operational servers. Tape is also low performance. Consequently, backup processes require scheduled downtime, recovery snap shots are commonly spaced apart by days instead of minutes, and the restore procedure is time consuming and tedious.

Data Protection Manager gets around these problems by supporting high-performance, reliable disks for short-term backup and restricting tape media to long-term archiving. The high performance of hard disks allows continual transparent backup, shrinks restoration point spacing to as little as 15 minutes, and substantially cuts restoration time. For improved disk system reliability, DPM 2010 supports disk clusters and fault-tolerant storage arrays. New features of Data Protection Manager 2010 include support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 virtualization and Clustered Shared Volumes, the option to restore individual files, DAG support for Exchange 2010, enhanced operation with SharePoint Server, and full data protection during a Live Migration procedure.

How Progent's Microsoft-certified Engineers Can Help You Integrate Data Protection Manager 2010
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can assist your business to assess the costs and advantages of Data Protection Manager and can help you in all facets of DPM integration. Progent can assist you to:

• Define your protection targets and create a backup/restore strategy to meet them
• Design a cost-effective wide area network architecture to accommodate DPM
• Configure Windows Server 2008, SQL Server, Exchange Server, and SharePoint to work with DPM
• Set up Protection Groups and Storage Pools
• Calculate and allocate hard disk space for protection
• Define tape library circulation and management
• Install DPM Protection Agents on computers on both sides of your network firewall
• Maximize backup and recovery performance

Other DPM-related Consulting and Support Services Available from Progent
Progent's Cisco CCIE network engineers can assist you to create a robust network architecture that is economical to install and simple to maintain and that provides maximum availability and data protection. Progent's CISSP-ISSAP security specialists can help you to create and test a disaster recovery strategy that is economically realistic for your business, ensures security for your sensitive corporate information, and reduces system downtime in case of a catastrophic network breakdown.

Call or Email Progent to Get Support from a Microsoft-Certified DPM 2010 Expert
To contact Progent about technical help for Data Protection Manager 2010 integration, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.