Symantec Extends Windows Protection Leadership with Backup Exec System Recovery 7.0

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the release of Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 7.0, the latest version of its complete and fast Windows system recovery solution. Backup Exec System Recovery enables businesses to recover complete Windows systems in minutes, not hours or days, and introduces enhanced Microsoft Exchange, virtual, and data recovery capabilities as well as new centralized management to give IT administrators added flexibility and simplified management in protecting their valuable IT assets.

With this release, Backup Exec System Recovery adds significant performance improvements and adds support for Microsoft Vista, x64-bit platforms, VMware ESX Server, and Microsoft Virtual Server. Backup Exec System Recovery is a stand-alone solution for Windows Servers and may be purchased and installed separately, or together with the entire family of Backup Exec product offerings.

“In today’s mission-critical environments, all systems—from servers to desktops to laptops—must be easily and quickly recoverable, whether to similar or dissimilar hardware,” said Pat Hanavan, vice president, Data and Systems Management Group, Symantec. “Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery, the gold standard in complete Windows system recovery, ensures customer confidence in the recovery process through revolutionary capabilities along with unprecedented speed and reliability.”

A disk-based solution, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery overcomes tedious and painful manual system recovery processes that can take days if not weeks by capturing an exact copy of a system—including operating system, applications, system settings, user settings, and data— in a single recovery point. When systems fail, IT administrators simply select the recovery point to restore from and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery restores the complete system in a fraction of the time of traditional methods.

“For small environments lacking data protection, Backup Exec System Recovery is an easy-to-use solution providing rapid recovery of Windows systems and data,” said analyst Lauren Whitehouse of Enterprise Strategy Group. “Larger organizations will benefit from its system recovery capabilities and virtual environment migration tools, both of which are complementary to any existing data protection solution already in use.”

Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery also speeds the recovery of individual emails, files, and folders. A new Exchange Retrieve Option simplifies Exchange recovery, providing fast and easy recovery not only of the entire Exchange server but of individual messages, attachments, folders, and mailboxes. Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery also provides a familiar web search experience called “Backup Exec Retrieve” to make it easy for users to recover their own files and folders without IT intervention. A similar search and retrieve capability is also available via integration with Google Desktop. In addition, end users looking to protect only select files and folders can now choose to run a local file and folder protection schema in addition to the volume-based recovery point process. This includes support for versioning so customers can keep multiple versions of the same file containing the various changes in time that they wish to restore.

Providing support for the growing virtual environment market, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery delivers seamless conversion of physical recovery points to virtual formats (P2V) as well as conversion of virtual systems back to physical environments (V2P) for VMware ESX Server, VMware Server, VMware Workstation, and Microsoft Virtual Server. Administrators can choose to convert entire systems at once or selective volumes at a time.

“Backup Exec System Recovery helps ensure our critical systems run smoothly around the clock,” said Allen Montgomery, corporate director of Information Technology for Baptist Health South Florida, the largest not-for-profit health care organization in South Florida. "It is imperative that our health care providers remain productive at all times and Symantec allows us to seamlessly and rapidly recover operations in the event of a failure to ensure continuity of operations for our hospital. Backup Exec System Recovery helps us improve the delivery of service to our patients and staff, while significantly reducing the costs associated with Windows system recovery.”

Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery also introduces centralized management, providing an at-a-glance view of all system backup and recovery activity across multiple systems from a central location. This new Backup Exec System Recovery Manager component simplifies backup and recovery administration for organizations with more than a single system, enabling administrators to centrally create backup jobs, view real-time status, run reports, quickly resolve any problems identified and add new systems quickly and easily as required.

“As part of Symantec’s extensive network of partners, we are ready to help government agencies and businesses protect and support their Microsoft Windows environments,” said Rick Marcotte, president and CEO of DLT Solutions, Inc. “Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery is a critical component of our toolkit, providing a highly flexible, reliable, intuitive recovery solution that enables businesses to get back up and running without missing a beat. It meets and exceeds the service level demands of our valuable customers.”

Existing Backup Exec for Windows Servers customers looking for a streamlined, lower-priced version of Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery can leverage the new Backup Exec for Windows Servers System Recovery Option. This new option offers just the core business-critical system recovery capabilities offered in the stand-alone editions of Backup Exec System Recovery, including dissimilar hardware recovery and physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion, among other features, where data protection is already ensured with Backup Exec.

Pricing and Availability

Estimated pricing for Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 7.0 is U.S. $1,095 per server and $69 per workstation. Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers customers may purchase the new Backup Exec for Windows Servers System Recovery Option for $695. All product components are scheduled to be available in late April through Symantec’s worldwide network of distributors and resellers. In addition, Symantec offers consulting, education and support services for Backup Exec System Recovery products to aid customers in protecting their critical Windows systems. For additional product information please visit www.backupexec.com.

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in infrastructure software, enabling businesses and consumers to have confidence in a connected world. The company helps customers protect their infrastructure, information, and interactions by delivering software and services that address risks to security, availability, compliance, and performance. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.