IT Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Microsoft has shipped Data Protection Manager 2010 (DPM 2010), a comprehensive backup-and-recovery solution designed specifically for protecting Windows file and application servers and workstations. System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 allows on-going,transparent backup of both physical and virtual computers to local or remote disks plus off-line backup to tape, and enables rapid, simple-to-manage recovery of entire computers or individual files. Data Protection Manager's disk drive support provides the speed and dependability you need to preserve your critical business data without interrupting network operations, while Data Protection Manager's tape drive support keeps long-term archiving costs affordable and helps ensure compliance with contractual or legal data retention mandates.

Most small companies still rely on outdated, tape-centric backup and recovery technology. In the event of a major system failure, this exposes them to significant income loss because of prolonged network unavailability and, in the worst case, unrecoverable data. Tape-only protection solutions are unreliable because tape media is subject to wear and tear and requires a tightly maintained warehousing environment. Microsoft reported a 17% failure rate when using tape to back up their own operational servers. Mag tape is also low performance. Because of this, backup processes call for periodic server downtime, recovery snap shots are commonly separated by days rather than minutes, and the restoration procedure is long and tricky.

Data Protection Manager gets around these shortcomings by supporting fast, dependable disk systems for short-term backup and restricting tape to long-term storage. The high performance of hard disks allows ongoing transparent backup, reduces recovery point spacing to as low as 15 minutes, and substantially lowers restoration time. For enhanced disk system reliability, DPM supports disk clusters and fault-tolerant storage arrays. New features of DPM 2010 include operation with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization and Clustered Shared Volumes, the option to restore individual files, Database Availability Group support for Exchange 2010, improved integration with SharePoint, and full data protection during a Live Migration process.

How Progent's Microsoft Consultants Can Assist You Deploy DPM 2010
Progent's Microsoft-certified engineers can assist you to assess the costs and advantages of Data Protection Manager and can help you in all phases of DPM deployment. Progent can help you:

• Determine your recovery targets and create a backup policy to meet them
• Create a cost-effective multi-site network topology to accommodate DPM
• Set up Windows Server 2008, Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint to run with DPM
• Set up Protection Groups
• Calculate and reserve disk space for protection
• Plan tape circulation and management
• Configure Protection Agents on computers inside and outside your network firewall
• Optimize backup and restoration performance

Other DPM-related Consulting and Support Offered by Progent
Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can assist your company to create a resilient network architecture that is affordable to deploy and easy to manage and that provides maximum system availability and protection. Progent's CISSP-ISSAP certified security experts can help your company to create and validate a business continuity strategy that is financially realistic for your situation, provides security for your sensitive corporate information, and minimizes downtime in case of a major network breakdown.

Call or Email Progent for Support from a Microsoft-Qualified DPM 2010 Specialist
If you wish to contact Progent about technical assistance for Data Protection Manager 2010 solutions, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.