Microsoft Launches System Center Data Protection Manager as Part of Its Universal Distributed Storage Vision

NEW YORK — Sept. 27, 2005 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate general availability of Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), the next step forward in the company’s Universal Distributed Storage strategy. Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Windows Server™ Division, will make the announcement during his keynote address at the Storage Decisions conference this evening at 6 p.m. Data Protection Manager promises to lower the total cost of ownership for backup and recovery while enabling entirely new customer scenarios around rapid and reliable recovery and near-continuous protection.

“Backup has been the bane of IT professionals for decades,” Muglia said. “Disk-based data protection provides a revolution in providing continuous backup and fast recovery of data.  Data Protection Manager will help usher in this new era of disk-based data protection.”

The release of DPM is a step closer toward the realization of Microsoft’s vision for Universal Distributed Storage, aimed at delivering distributed storage solutions built on industry standard hardware. Microsoft will work with industry partners to bring high-end functionality to a range of devices, PCs and servers at a low total cost of ownership. Microsoft’s goal is for Windows® to manage storage more cost-effectively than other platforms, centralized on a Storage Area Network (SAN) or on a remote worker’s desktop.

Microsoft also announced findings from a report it commissioned from VeriTest, the independent testing division of Lionbridge Technologies Inc. The VeriTest report concluded that Data Protection Manager provided significant, tangible benefits over the tape-based backup solutions that were tested in the study. In the VeriTest benchmark tests, DPM, a disk-based backup product, provided the following benefits relative to tape backup products:

  • DPM provided 11.6x faster file recovery with disc than equivalent file recovery from tape backup using Veritas Backup Exec 10 software.*

  • DPM completed an incremental backup job 3.7x faster with disc than equivalent incremental tape backup using Veritas Backup Exec 10 software.*

Customers Dramatically Lower Total Cost of Ownership With Data Protection Manager

The following companies have achieved significant savings of time or money with DPM:

  • San Francisco Unified School District. Because it won’t have to hire additional staff or use tapes, the district expects to save $100,000 (U.S.) in the first year. It will save thousands more by combining DPM with other IT projects and repurposing hardware.

  • City of New York Department of Sanitation, Bureau of Motor Vehicle Equipment. DPM reduced by 98 percent the amount of time required to back up the department’s servers and greatly reduced the number of failed backup jobs.

  • Des Moines Public Schools. DPM has cut time spent on backup by more than 20 percent and expects to save the Iowa school district $135,000 (U.S.) in the first year.

  • Nitor Global Solutions. Nitor is a channel partner that has been working with a global media company to use DPM to back up data at 148 remote offices. Its current deployment of DPM has resulted in a 92 percent increase in recovery speed as compared with its tape solutions.

  • Microsoft IT. Microsoft anticipates a savings of at least $2.7 million (U.S.) in the first two years of its deployment by removing tape-based hardware and software from 130 branch offices. For example, the company found that the eight-hour backup required by its Portland, Ore., branch office to protect 300 gigabytes of data to tape has been reduced to about 10 minutes using DPM.

New Solutions From Industry-Leading Storage Partners Available Immediately

Today storage partners announced the immediate availability of solutions and applications integrated with Data Protection Manager and support for DPM. Storage partners include Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), CommVault Systems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc., Dell Inc., EqualLogic Inc., Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, Intel Corporation, Quantum Corp. and Yosemite Technologies Inc.:

  • HP announced the immediate availability of HP ProLiant Data Protection Storage Servers, a new line of data protection products built on Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager. Estimated U.S. prices for these appliances begin at less than $6,000 (U.S.).

  • Quantum is announcing its DPM5500, an appliance based on System Center Data Protection Manager. Quantum’s high-performance disk system provides customers with increased granularity of restores, differentiated features such as hardware-based compression for lower cost of ownership, and integrated data migration to tape.

  • Fujitsu Siemens is announcing a Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager-based appliance running on FibreCAT hardware that will provide exceptional value in protecting Windows file servers.

  • CommVault, Yosemite and Computer Associates announced software solutions to complete the archiving scenario for DPM data.

Customers can deploy DPM today without disruption to existing IT infrastructure environments. Microsoft continues to work with its partner ecosystem of over 40 original equipment manufacturers and independent software and hardware vendors to enable the broadest choice of affordable backup and recovery solutions available based on Data Protection Manager.

Microsoft also announced the beta release of Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, targeted for release to manufacturing by the end of 2005, and the company’s intent to build solutions from storage industry partners. In addition, to address the growing needs of branch offices, industry partners such as Brocade, Network Engines Inc. and Tacit Networks Inc. will be offering branch office appliance solutions built on the Windows Server platform. Together with its established storage technologies and Windows Server platform innovations, Microsoft, along with its industry partners, is enabling a truly integrated end-to-end, cost-effective and robust storage solution for customers.

About DPM

At an estimated retail price of $950 (U.S.), which includes one server license and the management licenses to protect three file servers, Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager is designed to provide customers with more rapid and reliable recovery and less potential data loss relative to tape backup. DPM offers customers and partners an effective backup and recovery solution that significantly lowers IT costs and the risk of permanent data loss and increases productivity and efficiency. More information on DPM and industry partners can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/dpm.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* The complete test report will be posted on http://www.veritest.com.

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The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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