Backup Exec and SnapManagers - which is better?

[meyer]

A customer wrote this to me in an email:

On another note, I had planned on upgrading my Backup Exec next

year to 11.0 to accommodate my move to Exchange 2007 (also next year).

However, since my Exchange data is about to be on the StoreVault SAN

and since SnapManager for Exchange manages the snapshots/backups, that

clears Backup Exec from having to deal with it, correct? If so, that

saves me from having to buy the Exchange Agent for Backup Exec. For

taking backups offsite, I’m guessing I can have Backup Exec (without

the Exchange agent) make a copy of the backups that SME does, right?"

[meyer]

Snapshot technology is great but I think it provides only 80% of the solution for backup and restore. My true definition of a backup is "having your data in more than one place" to handle disaster recovery. Snapshot data is stored on the exact same disks that your primary data is stored and if, for some reason, disaster strikes (fire, flood, earthquake, (we are in CA after all)), Snapshots can't help if the StoreVault is unavailable.

Most back up and restore needs come from the desire to quickly back up your files and to quickly recover deleted and/or corrupted files and

volumes. This is the ideal use for Snapshots and is directly in line with what SME and SD does for you with Exchange.

Once you have SnapManager for Exchange, you wouldn't need the Backup Exec Exchange agent. One recommendation would be to backup to tape fromSnapshots on the StoreVault. You already have consistent copies of your Exchange data in a read-only format on the StoreVault. You can then use SnapDrive to mount any Snapshot of the Exchange store on your backup server and then use Backup Exec to copy that data to tape. Then storeyour tapes offsite.

Another recommendation, and I think a simpler process, is to use StoreVault Replication to move your Exchange data to another StoreVault in an offsite location. The advantages here are the speed of backups and, more importantly I think, the speed of Disaster Recovery. If your primary StoreVault is unavailable for

whatever reason you can run your Exchange environment from the secondary StoreVault in a matter of minutes instead of the hours it would take for a tape restore.