CA ARCserve r16, Backup Exec 2012

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1 Our quest to find the best backup/restore, disaster recovery, replication and business continuity product looks at the latest versions of CA ARCserve (r16), Symantec Backup Exec (2012) and CommVault Simpana (v9). Executive Summary CA ARCserve r16 proved in this in-depth review that it can back up and recover data much better than either Backup Exec 2012 or Simpana 9. CA ARCserve is more feature-complete, is more reliable, costs less, scales better and is far easier to use than Backup Exec Furthermore, CA ARCserve supports more OS platforms, works with more virtual environments, partners with more cloud vendors and integrates with more applications. Unlike Backup Exec 2012, CA ARCserve excels at providing maximum uptime and availability for critical servers and applications. Backup Exec 2012 lacks Continuous Data Protection and High Availability capabilities. Unfortunately, Symantec s recent substantial enhancements to Backup Exec 2012 fall short of CA ARCserve s basic feature set. A key issue is Backup Exec 2012 s new user interface, which makes Backup Exec unproductive, confusing and difficult to operate. CA ARCserve exhibited faster performance, much better SRM reporting, far greater uptime and availability and far lower cost than Simpana 9. CA ARCserve r16 has again earned the World Class Award for best data protection and business continuity. CA ARCserve r16, Symantec Backup Exec 2012 and CommVault Simpana 9 all offer to protect and preserve your data using a variety of backup/restore approaches. All have many features to tempt organizations needing to protect critical data from failures, disasters and human mistakes. How do CA ARCserve r16, Backup Exec 2012 measure up? Which is best suited to your particular computing environment? We decided to look closely and in detail at the abilities and shortcomings of CA ARCserve, Backup Exec In this report, we compare and contrast the three products, feature by feature. Disclosure: ion of this report funded by CA, Inc. Copyright All rights reserved

2 CA ARCserve s components are CA ARCserve Backup, CA ARCserve D2D, CA ARCserve Replication and CA ARCserve High Availability. Symantec Backup Exec 2012 s components are Backup Exec 2012, Symantec System Recovery 2011, a Backup Exec 3600 Appliance, a virtual-only Backup Exec V-Ray Edition and Backup Exec.cloud. For clarity s sake, note that Symantec has changed the name of its disk-to-disk imagebased approach from Intelligent Disaster Recovery (IDR) to Simplified Disaster Recovery (SDR). Symantec s disk-to-disk component is System Recovery CA s disk-to-disk image-based component is CA ARCserve D2D. Some of CommVault Simpana 9 s many components are CommServe Master Server, Enterprise Data Management Server, SRM Reporting Enabler, Media Agents (AIX, Linux, Windows, etc.), Consolidated Data Storage Option, Content Store, Private Cloud Storage Gateway, CommCell Disaster Recovery, Granular Recovery Mining Tool, Content Indexing Enabler Data Client Connector, Content Director Policy Enabler and Snap Protection Client-Application Server. CA ARCserve s new features are Image-based Backup Enhancements Integrated Access to Cloud Storage Integrated configuration of the cloud connection to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Microsoft Windows Azure storage and Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform Backup Throttling Optimizes the resources allocated to each backup Granular Mailbox Recovery Restores individual Exchange s, attachments, files and folders from a single-pass backup Desktop/Laptop Protection Performs Infinite Incremental snapshot backups and bare-metal restores for your desktops and notebooks Encryption Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)-128, AES-192 and AES- 256 encryption for privacy and confidentiality Windows Explorer Shell Integration Navigate and manipulate recovery points directly from within Windows Explorer Auto Update Downloads and painlessly installs the latest ARCserve updates, hot fixes and service packs Central Protection Manager Web-based console for viewing and managing all protected servers and clients has automated Active Directory discovery, remote deployment, simplified policy-based administration, Storage Resource Manager (SRM) reporting, status, grouping, search and restore, basic workflow and event logging Central Reporting Centralized, detailed reporting, with a customizable dashboard, for all devices, settings and policies (local and remote) Copyright All rights reserved

3 Central Host-Based VM Backup Backs up all VMs in a single pass Central Virtual Standby Transforms image-based backups into runnable VMware Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) or Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) virtual server format Higher Integration Add image-backup protected servers to the file-backup Manager catalog, migrate image-based recovery points to tape and retrieve those recovery points directly from tape, replicate recovery points offsite and retrieve the offsite data as if it were local File-Based Backup Enhancements Archive Manager Identify and migrate data that meets specific archiving policies to less expensive storage to reduce storage costs while addressing compliance requirements Integrated Cloud Storage Configure and use cloud storage for offsite data protection, archiving and system availability for business continuity and disaster recovery Snapshot and File-level Integration Use combinations of image backups and file backups to restore specific data Synthetic Full Backup Improvements Use computing resources frugally yet transparently to store incremental backups Backup Images to Tape Copy disaster recovery disk images to tape for secondary storage WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Option)-compliant Disaster Recovery Use Microsoft s WinPE technology to drive bare-metal restore operations Improved Tape Management Maximize and consolidate both disk and tape storage to lessen computing resource usage SaaS Data Protection Image-based backup, restore and system recovery and comes bundled and integrated with Microsoft Windows Azure cloud storage Replication and High Availability Enhancements Full System Protection Replicates a complete Windows system (operating system, system state, applications and data) to an offline virtual server, monitors the system and application, and offers automatic and push-button failover for high availability. Includes hardware-independent BMR recovery and nondisruptive failback to restore the original production server. Amazon Cloud (Amazon Web Services [AWS] and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud [Amazon EC2]) Integration Use Amazon s data center resources to have a cloud-based Replica server Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Support Complements a Windows Server failover cluster with data replication to any local or remote site; integrated with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Copyright All rights reserved

4 Secure Communication 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption (no virtual private network (VPN) or IPSec tunnel necessary) VMware vcenter Server v4 Support Replication and failover for the VMware management system Backup Exec 2012 s new features are The New User Interface Replaces earlier versions backup job orientation with a server-centric model New Backup Paradigm Simplifies backup job scheduling Guided Restore Uses a one-step-at-a-time Wizard to help an administrator restore data Interactive Alerts Associates alerts with a source to help you identify a problem server, job or storage device New Storage Setup Wizard Step-by-step help in configuring disk, tape, cloud or storage pool backups Simplified Disaster Recovery System image (including the OS) backup and restore Convert to Virtual Machine for Hyper-V and VMware Automatic Updating of the Backup Exec Software Uses Symantec s LiveUpdate Minor Reports Improvements Color coding, larger fonts, additional data columns and output in either HTML or PDF Improved Search Can search for more detail in backup sets New Notifications or text messages when alerts occur Find Unprotected Data Discover data that s not backed up True Image Restore Finds and collects latest-changed data when reassembling a synthetic backup set Checkpoint Restart Can restart from point of failure New PowerShell interface Command Line Interface (CLI) works with Windows PowerShell Various Agent Changes Updates and improvements to the VMware, Hyper-V, Exchange Server, SharePoint, Mac, Linux and Enterprise Vault agents CommVault Simpana 9 s new features are Virtual Server Data Protection SnapProtect for virtual environments Quickly backup virtual environments; can restore applications, VMs or data files Supports thousands of VMs -- Scales to support thousands of VMs. Auto-discovery with autoprotection Automatically discovers and protects VMs using pre-defined data protection policies Copyright All rights reserved

5 Complete lifecycle management Policy-based management tracks data across tiers of storage Off-host cataloging Shifts data protection workloads away from production systems to improve server performance Storage vendor support works with Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Oracle/Sun/LSI Integrated deduplication Reduces network utilization across virtual and physical environments Integrated SRM for virtual and physical environments Reports describe physical servers and the contents of individual VMs, file-level analysis and physical resource consumption Citrix Systems XEN support Data Reduction Source-side Deduplication Reduces network utilization right from the backup target computer Global deduplication Uses multiple storage policies, each with its own retention settings Single-console operation Gives a single operational view of all deduplication policies Modern Data Protection SnapProtect platform support Adds Oracle/Sun/LSI, HP platforms and IBM DB2, SAP, Microsoft Exchange 2010 applications to Dell, EMC, HDS, IBM and NetApp Deduplication Accelerated Streaming Hash (DASH) Backup Copies Allows multiple data retention periods for multiple storage tiers DASH accelerated synthetic full backups Transfers signatures instead of actual data to a data storage target in order to reduce synthetic full backup times Content Store Supports SAP content storage EMC Documentum Support Protects Documentum databases, storage areas, and full-text indexes within Oracle or DB2 on UNIX NetApp Data Connector Imports NetApp snapshots of Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle and SAP for Oracle data PostGreSQL Database Support Exchange Information Mining Search, browse and restore individual Exchange mailboxes or notes Simplified Administration Simplified license management with dashboard visibility At-a-glance reminder of how much of your Simpana licensed capacity you re using Copyright All rights reserved

6 Automated discovery and installation Finds unprotected servers and installs Simpana on them Automated Simpana updates New Reports Health checks, data protection, media management, billing charge back, capacity planning and SLA performance, computer inventory, duplicate files, server capacity, software inventory, storage aggregate and storage inventory Agentless, Remote SRM Unobtrusively collects data on systems and files Fast Pass Helps automate a migration from IBM TSM or Symantec NetBackup to Simpana Remote Operations Management Service (ROMS) 30-day trial of CommVault s remote management of your data backup operations The categories we used in this evaluation are Image-based backup features File-based backup features Replication/high availability features. Overall features For each feature, we provide a detailed ranking of the products and we explain the rankings when they re dissimilar. The next feature chart reveals how well CA ARCserve, Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana 9 fare in producing and recovering from image-based backups. Image-based Backup An image-based full system backup contains everything about a computer at the moment the backup copy was made the operating system, the system s current state and the data file disk blocks. The backed up image can later be restored (termed a Bare Metal Restore operation, or BMR) either to the same computer or to another computer of different brand and type. Additionally, image-based backup products offer granular recovery at the application and file level for faster recovery. Copyright All rights reserved

7 Image-based Backup Features Comparison Table (Scoring from 0 to 5, with 5 the highest) Feature Snapshot/image backup technology Operating System support Device support Virtual server support Physical < > virtual server support Cloud capabilities and support RTO/RPO (for disaster recovery) Granular recovery Off-site replication of images Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) Virtual standby for cold-failover Client support Image archiving, retention and versioning Centralized management Centralized reporting SaaS subscriptions with cloud storage RMM integration for MSPs CommVault Symantec Simpana 9 Backup Exec 2012 CA ARCserve r Image-based backup features aggregate ranking Copyright All rights reserved

8 Image-based Backup Notes Technology CA ARCserve r16 offers true infinite incremental snapshot/image-based backups onto virtually any disk drive. CA ARCserve s image-based backup/restore component is easy to install, a breeze to use, relatively inexpensive to buy and highly protective of your data. CA ARCserve s disk-to-disk image-based backup supports myriads of hardware combinations. CA ARCserve s image-based backup is built on its patent-pending Infinite Incremental (I 2 Technology) that enables users to only perform a full backup once (the first time it s used) and then only perform incremental backups from that point forward. This technology has been designed to intelligently manage the backup of only blocks of data that have changed since the last backup and present a consolidated point-in-time view of the protected volume for multiple recovery types, thus reducing your recovery time. CA ARCserve, Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana offer synthetic backups, in which a full backup is assembled, or synthesized, from a baseline full backup and subsequent incremental backups. However, Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana users must periodically create a new full backup. CA ARCserve s I 2, on the other hand, does not have this limitation hence the name Infinite Incremental. Symantec terms its synthetic backup Advanced Disk-based Backup Option (ADBO). ADBO s scheduling options for starting a new recovery point set, or base, are weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly. The Advanced Disk-based Option is expensive. It s only available as part of Symantec s Enterprise Server Option (which adds $3,400 to Backup Exec s list price). As Symantec says, Enterprise Server Option combines Advanced Disk Backup Option, Central Admin Option and the SAN Shared Storage Option into a single purchasable option for simplified licensing. Simpana s design of its synthetic full backup methodology uses what the vendor terms Deduplication Accelerated Streaming Hash (DASH) to reduce the time needed for synthetic full backup operation. To minimize disk I/O, DASH transfers only data signatures instead of actual data to the target. We were deeply disappointed by CommVault s disk image processing module, SnapProtect. It s difficult and time-consuming to install, it s expensive and the worst part it s engineered poorly when it comes to protecting your data. CommVault admits that installing SnapProtect requires 4 weeks of effort. CommVault also says you ll need to research and either update or adjust several environment details: Firmware versions on the array, device types, modes of access, security configurations, operating systems that access the storage array and application layout on the storage array LUNs. Copyright All rights reserved

9 SnapProtect can record hardware-based snapshots onto (within) just Dell, EMC HDS, HP, IBM or NetApp hardware arrays. SnapProtect writes its backup/snapshot file (your first line of data disaster defense) onto the same hardware array filesystem that you re afraid may fail. Later, the CommCell s CommServer schedules a subsequent operation to tell a proxy server to mount the hardware array, copy the image files to secondary storage and, after the secondary file copy finishes, unmount the hardware array. SnapProtect itself merely halts the application, triggers the hardware array to produce a snapshot right within the array and then restarts the application. We find these extra operations and steps to be a risky and poorly-designed engineering approach to protecting critical data. CommVault imposes a number of other limitations and restrictions on SnapProtect. These include but are not limited to: Once a backup copy is performed and the snapshot is copied to media, the same snapshot cannot be re-copied again If a previously selected snapshot has not been copied to media, the current SnapProtect job will complete without creating the backup copy and you will need to create an offline backup copy for the current backup If the Storage Policy or the disk library being used by the subclient is updated, the subclient should be recreated SnapProtect backups support online virtual machines only with NetApp file servers. Other storage array vendors use the traditional backup method. To perform a SnapProtect backup, the virtual machine must be offline. CA ARCserve r16, Backup Exec 2012 can each create snapshots as often as every 15 minutes. Operating Systems, BMR Simpana supports UNIX flavors as well as Windows, but CA ARCserve and Backup Exec 2012 support only Windows. Simpana, like CA ARCserve and Backup Exec 2012, can restore Windows images onto dissimilar hardware, but imposes significant constraints on its UNIX BMR operations. Cloud Support CA ARCserve, Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana write the initial snapshot (backup) to disk. A subsequent step copies the snapshot data to a cloud. For secondary storage (via its proxy backup/restore component), Simpana 9 can interface with the cloud vendors Amazon, Azure, EMC (Atmos), Iron Mountain, Meseo, Nirvanix and Rackspace. CA ARCserve s D2D feature works with Amazon and Azure to store Copyright All rights reserved

10 secondary or tertiary image backups. After the first image copy to the cloud, CA ARCserve transmits only incremental changes (via I 2 ) from that point forward. This makes the best use of low-speed cloud connections. Backup Exec 2012 s limited cloud support works just with Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network. Symantec hopes that other cloud-based storage vendors will develop software (OST) plug-ins that a customer can install on a cloud-connected Backup Exec 2012 server. To its credit, Backup Exec 2012 has a Back Up to Disk and then Duplicate to Cloud option that sends backup data to disk and then creates a duplicate copy of the backup sets for storage in the Nirvanix cloud. Backup Exec 2012 s cloud configuration is a simple, wizard-based affair. Moreover, CA ARCserve can t perform a complete backup to the cloud, as Backup Exec 2012 can. Remote Management via Managed Service Providers (MSPs) Several MSPs have embraced CA ARCserve, such as Artisan Infrastructure, Level Platforms, LabTech Software, N-able and Nimsoft, and the list is growing. CommVault is currently just beginning to get MSPs to consider supporting Simpana. Backup Exec 2012 offers integration options for Kaseya, LabTech Software and Level Platforms, and Symantec recently released its Symantec Partner Management Console. The Partner Management Console is a tool designed to simplify the management and monitoring of Symantec Backup Exec.cloud through a single Web-based portal. Performance and Media Usage CA ARCserve s I 2 is faster than both Backup Exec 2012 s ADBO s synthetic full backup process (its Deduplication Accelerated Streaming Hash notwithstanding), and I 2 uses less storage space. For a complete system comprising 300 GB, Figure 1 shows the relative performance of CA ARCserve r16 I 2, Backup Exec 2012 ADBO. Copyright All rights reserved

11 CA ARCserve r16 Simpana 9 Backup Exec 2012 (with Enterprise Server Option) Figure 1. CA ARCserve I 2, Backup Exec 2012 ADBO and Simpana 9 DASH imagebased backup/restore performance Average Backup Time (Minutes)Average System Restore (BMR) Time (Minutes) CA ARCserve used 14% less storage space than Backup Exec 2012 (120 GB vs. 137 GB) when we tested the creation of monthly full backups and used each product s highest level of compression. (ADBO has 4 compression levels for the recovery point: None, Standard, Medium and High. I 2 has 3 levels: None, Standard and Maximum.) Using CA ARCserve s I 2 (infinite incrementals, one full backup at the outset and just incrementals thereafter) but telling Backup Exec 2012 to continue creating monthly full backups with incrementals during the month we saw that I 2 used about half ADBO s space at the end of two months (144 GB vs. 290 GB) and about a third of ADBO s space at the end of three months (161 GB vs. 457 GB). Figure 2 depicts the resulting storage requirements. Copyright All rights reserved

12 CA ARCserve needed 8% less storage space than Simpana 9 (120 GB vs. 131 GB) when we tested the creation of monthly full backups and selected each product s highest level of compression. In our tests, CA ARCserve s I 2 utilized only small, incremental amounts of backup storage after the initial full backup. In contrast, Backup Exec 2012 s s need to perform periodic full backups caused them to consume considerable backup storage, overwhelming any storage media savings from either Backup Exec 2012 s or Simpana s (interim) synthetic full backups. Telling Simpana 9 (as CommVault recommends) to continue creating monthly full backups with incrementals during the month we saw that I 2 used about half Simpana s space at the end of two months (144 GB vs. 268 GB) and a little more than a third of Simpana s space at the end of three months (161 GB vs. 420 GB). Figure 2 depicts the resulting storage requirements. ADBO s administration is a bit more sophisticated than its predecessor. For instance, it has a Limit the number of recovery point sets saved for this backup option, which limits the number of recovery point sets that can be saved for this backup. Symantec says, You can limit the number of recovery point sets to reduce the risk of filling up the hard drive with recovery points. Each new recovery point set replaces the oldest set on your backup destination drive. This option appears only if you are creating a recovery point set. Managing older backup sets used to be a manual affair in Backup Exec System Recovery 2011 by itself, without ADBO (via the purchase of Enterprise Server Option), can only do whole-system image backups. It can t do incremental backups. System Recovery 2011 is perhaps useful to people who make ad hoc full backups before installing or upgrading software and who perhaps use (large) flash drives as backup media. It s otherwise fairly useless. Note that Backup Exec 2012 can select only file system data for synthetic backup. Copyright All rights reserved

13 Disk Space Used after 3 months (GB) CA ARCserve r16 Simpana 9 Backup Exec 2012 (with Enterprise Server Option) Figure 2. CA ARCserve I 2, Backup Exec 2012 ADBO and Simpana 9 DASH image-based disk storage utilization Virtualization Support -- Both CA ARCserve are champions of virtualization, supporting VMware ESX and vsphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer. CA ARCserve additionally supports Redhat KVM. Backup Exec 2012 only supports VMWare ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V. Virtual Standby CA ARCserve offers Virtual Standby, a feature wherein up-to-date copies of backup images (recovery points) are available for immediate use in case of a system outage, thus offering near-instantaneous system recovery. CA ARCserve s Virtual Standby feature automatically converts recovery points into VMDK and VHD formats and automatically registers with the hypervisor. It offers automated and manual failover. Furthermore, CA ARCserve s virtual standby works in either physical-to-virtual (P2V) or virtual-to-virtual (V2V) failover modes. Copyright All rights reserved

14 Backup Exec 2012 has Virtual Machine Auto-Recovery for VMware, which attempts to automatically restore a failed virtual machine in order to recover lost application services. However, this restricted-to-the-local-virtual-server action is little help in a disaster recovery situation. Unfortunately, Simpana 9 lacks an automated virtual standby feature. RTO/RPO Performance Testing To measure CA ARCserve s, Backup Exec 2012 s and Simpana s Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) performance, we simulated the destruction of four Windows Server computers containing a total of 300 GB in a small data center. One of these computers ran SQL Server 2005, one ran Internet Information Server (IIS), one ran an OLTP business application and the fourth was the backup server. In our tests, both CA ARCserve and Simpana took snapshots every fifteen minutes and transferred backup material to a remote location. Four computers at the remote location stood by, waiting to go to work in case of a disaster. We measured the minutes needed to recover data and resume operations. Using CA ARCserve image-based backup in one test, Backup Exec 2012 in a second test and Simpana in another test, an administrator at the remote location restored the transferred data onto the waiting secondary servers. The test concluded when the administrator had restored all servers and had brought the OLTP application back online. The CA ARCserve administrator needed just 47 minutes to restore data to the servers and resume the OLTP application. Primarily because of the complexity of its user interface (and despite its use of the term 1-Touch to describe the process), the Simpana administrator needed one hour and fifteen minutes (75 minutes) to accomplish the same thing 28 minutes longer. The Backup Exec 2012 administrator needed one hour and nine minutes (69 minutes) to accomplish the same tasks 22 minutes longer. If time is money in your data center, CA ARCserve is clearly the tool of choice when disaster strikes. Central Management Working with disk images is easy and painless with CA ARCserve's Web 2.0 based management console. Simpana s user interface for dealing with image-based backups is comparatively awkward, despite its 1-Touch name. Backup Exec 2012 s user interface for dealing with disk images is also cumbersome and tedious. Backup Exec 2012 has a few other limitations we found annoying. When recovering a Backup Exec server, the Recover This Computer Wizard cannot restore data from a Copyright All rights reserved

15 local deduplication storage device. And SDR cannot recover a deduplication storage folder. If you use SDR to recover a Backup Exec server that contains a deduplication storage folder: Any existing backup sets that were sent to the deduplication storage folder after it was backed up cannot be restored The deduplication storage folder may not be in an operational state after the recovery Crucially, backups from previous versions of Backup Exec cannot be restored using SDR. Central Reporting CA ARCserve s Central Reporting component produces much more useful and informative reports regarding disk image recovery points than does Backup Exec 2012 s Central Administration Server or Simpana. All three products integrate with Windows Explorer to show the contents of an image file as a mountable drive letter. In the next chart, we take a detailed look at basic, fundamental CA ARCserve r16 and Simpana 9 file-based backup and restore capabilities. File-based Backup A file-based backup contains copies of applications and data files you designate, file by file and directory by directory. The backup process automatically and regularly creates the latest backup copy onto whatever media you specify tape, disk, USB memory or other device. You can archive older backup copies offsite, for safekeeping. Restoring the data copies it back to the source machine or other computer that typically already has an operating system installed on it. However, most file-based backup products also offer some type of bare metal restore (BMR) for system recovery. Copyright All rights reserved

16 File-based Backup Features Comparison Table (Scoring from 0 to 5, with 5 the highest) Feature Tape device support Application support Tape integration Tape archiving, retention and versioning Virtual machine protection Application-specific granular recovery SRM reporting Basic backup reporting Infrastructure visualization Central management Deduplication Public and private cloud support File archiving Integration with image-based backups Synthetic full backups CommVault Symantec Backup Simpana 9 Exec 2012 CA ARCserve r File-based backup features aggregate ranking File-based Backup Notes CA ARCserve r16, Backup Exec 2012 have similar file-based backup features. They all support the same operating systems, applications and backup devices. CA ARCserve has advantages, however, in its reporting, its infrastructure visualization and its central management console. CA ARCserve was also faster than both Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana in our tests, and its data deduplication was more efficient. Copyright All rights reserved

17 Figures 3 and 4 graph the relative performance of the two products. CA ARCserve r16 Simpana 9 Symantec Backup Exec Figure CA ARCserve r16, Backup Exec 2012 backup/restore performance Average Time (Minutes) to Back Up All Files Average Time (Minutes) to Restore All Files Copyright All rights reserved

18 Backup Exec 2012 can perform data deduplication at either the server or the client, while CA ARCserve s deduplication is server-only. On the other hand, Backup Exec 2012 s and Simpana s deduplication features are an extra-charge option. CA ARCserve includes deduplication at no extra charge Deduplication Disk Space Saved Ratio Figure 4. CA ARCserve r16, Backup Exec 2012 data deduplication ratios (higher is better) CA ARCserve r16 Simpana 9 Backup Exec 2012 Separately for each Storage Policy, Simpana s basic reports show details on backup histories, retentions and storage media usage. In contrast, CA ARCserve Central Reporting provides global views, administration and reporting on all devices, settings and policies (running on-premise and off-premise) protected by CA ARCserve. It gives both detailed reports and a summary Dashboard report view that clearly show the overall status as well as individual details for any and all backup operations. With its reports on physical servers and the contents of individual VMs, file-level analysis and physical resource consumption, Simpana 9 exhibits a modicum of SRM capability. In stark contrast, CA ARCserve s topology map clearly and intuitively displays a customer's infrastructure. By node, virtual machine or device, CA ARCserve graphically presents a hierarchical picture of data backup sets. CA ARCserve s SRM Copyright All rights reserved

19 reporting is revealing, comprehensive and helpful. A person can monitor the status of any and all backup operations, identify long-running backup operations, locate backed up data, discover whether data is encrypted, know the company s disaster recovery status and track volume, disk and memory usage on each server. Unfortunately, Backup Exec 2012 s unremarkable SRM reporting is lackluster and littlechanged from the previous version. And Backup Exec 2012 has virtually no infrastructure visualization capability. Backup Exec 2012 s basic reporting capabilities are the same as Backup Exec 2010 s, with very minor changes (color highlighting of titles, larger fonts, a few new data columns and output in either HTML or PDF format). Note that Simpana 9 has some quirky and somewhat confusing restrictions on the use of incremental backups, as exemplified by the following Simpana 9 documentation excerpt. Incremental Storage Policy Considerations You cannot enable a storage policy as an incremental storage policy if that storage policy already has an incremental storage policy enabled. The incremental storage policy option is only available for a Standard storage policy. If you are using a different MediaAgent for an incremental storage policy than the MediaAgent used for a full storage policy, one of the following conditions must be met: o The primary copies of both this storage policy and the selected incremental storage policy use a shared index cache. o The primary copies of both this storage policy and the selected incremental storage policy are set to use preferred data paths. If an incremental storage policy is de-associated from a storage policy, the most recent incremental backup may be pruned before the next full backup occurs. Backup Exec 2012 offers only rudimentary scheduling options. For instance, a Backup Exec 2012 customer cannot schedule tiered jobs over time. The following is an example of a backup situation that Backup Exec 2012 s less sophisticated job scheduling can t handle: Daily incremental backups, Monday throught Thursday, at 6 PM Weekly full backups on Friday at 6 PM Monthly full backups on the last Friday of the month at 6 PM Copyright All rights reserved

20 In this example, the user wants to schedule duplicate-to-tape jobs on Monday at 6 AM following the last full backup. (The user doesn't want to have D2D and D2T jobs competing for I/O and thus prolonging the backup jobs). Backup Exec 2012 s new server-centric user interface has no facility for scheduling the duplicate jobs to run on the Monday following the last full backup. In contrast, CA ARCserve and Simpana offer advanced tape management options. Regrettably, Symantec has dropped support in Backup Exec 2012 for: Earlier versions of Windows One Button Disaster Recovery Symantec Online Storage for Backup Exec (SOSBE) Replication Exec Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server Agent for SAP A variety of reports Macintosh OS 10.4 Some user interface features (barcode, media labeling and copying jobs to other media servers), which are now available only via the command line interface In the last features table, let s examine the huge differences between CA ARCserve and Simpana 9 in the areas of replication and high availability. Replication and High Availability Replication continuously copies changes made to one (master) computer s files to a secondary (replica) computer. The replica computer is always an exact copy of the master. High Availability manages the relationship between the master and replica computers in a way that makes the replica computer almost instantly assume the role of master if the master computer suffers a problem. Multiple master and replica computers are possible. The result is a file, application or database server that s virtually always available. Copyright All rights reserved

21 Replication and High Availability Features Comparison Table (Scoring from 0 to 5, with 5 the highest) Feature Replication CommVault Simpana 9 Symantec Backup Exec (Not available in or integrated with the Symantec Backup Exec 2012 product family) CA ARCserve r16 5 True high availability (hot failover) Physical and virtual server support Operating System and application support RTO/RPO (for disaster recovery) Cloud Integration Continuous Data Protection (CDP) Offline synchronization Replication and HA recovery testing Network optimization Replication and backup integration Assessment mode utility Application aware replication Replication and high availability features aggregate ranking Copyright All rights reserved

22 Replication and High Availability Notes Backup Exec 2012 completely lacks replication or high availability and thus scores zero for this entire category. CA ARCserve s replication component may be used in a scheduled manner to migrate and manage offsite backups. In a real-time, continuous manner, CA ARCserve provides true Continuous Data Protection (CDP). In contrast, Simpana s replication feature, Continuous Data Replication (CDR), delivers Near CDP by allowing disaster recovery copies of backup/archive data to be created over a LAN or WAN on a continuous basis. However, Simpana s approach requires manual intervention on the part of an administrator when a data disaster occurs. For companies needing maximum system uptime and availability, CA ARCserve has a High Availability (HA) component. Simpana 9 has a replication feature but does not offer high availability. Both CA ARCserve s and Simpana s replication components perform asynchronous replication and support Windows, Linux and UNIX environments. They may be deployed onsite, offsite and/or linked to a cloud. Basically, CA ARCserve s and Simpana s replication features clone each I/O operation and send the cloned copy to a secondary destination of your choice. Both CA ARCserve and Simpana can replicate between physical and virtual servers (P2P, P2V and V2P) and even between virtual server platforms (V2V). CA ARCserve s HA component includes all the functions of the replication component and adds the ability to monitor one or more background services running on a server. If a service fails, CA ARCserve will attempt to restart it. If the restart fails, the system can be set to automatically fail over to the replica (or failover) server. Alternately, the administrator can set the system to not automatically failover, thus allowing the administrator to investigate the problem. The administrator can then choose to use push-button failover. Simpana lacks all these features. With Simpana s Near CDP and absence of a high availability component, you still run the risk of significant outages and stoppages in the running of your business when you need to recover data and start up replacement servers. CA ARCserve can monitor a single server, group of servers, entire server farm or specific applications, such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, IIS and Dynamics CRM, thus ensuring maximum availability. When a hardware or application failure occurs, CA ARCserve automatically activates the replica server(s). It gives the replica servers IP addresses and host names during activation to make failover Copyright All rights reserved

23 transparent to end users, many of whom will never even know an outage occurred. Again, Simpana lacks these abilities. CA ARCserve s HA component is perfect for distributed applications like Microsoft SharePoint and Dynamics CRM, which typically have a multi-tier architecture consisting of separate Web, application and database servers. CA ARCserve replicates, monitors and fails over all the servers, not just the database server. And with group management, all component servers can be failed over even if only one fails. This is especially useful when the replica servers are kept at a distant remote location. CA ARCserve offers sophisticated push-button failover and failback for the highest possible level of automated availability. Simpana s replication feature requires that an administrator manually start the application(s) that will access the replicated data. CA ARCserve comes with many pre-built replication and high availability scenarios. Furthermore, it provides application-aware replication and failover for Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and IIS, as well as Oracle and Blackberry. In other words, CA ARCserve already knows what specific directories and files to replicate and when you just indicate which applications to protect. Simpana comes with far fewer pre-built scenarios, and for just some of the most popular applications Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft SQL Server. While both CA ARCserve and Simpana support virtual computing environments, CA ARCserve s HA component goes much further than Simpana. CA ARCserve offers high availability for VMware vsphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer. Simpana can perform replication in a VMware environment, but it does not have high availability support for any of these virtual platforms. CA ARCserve is also unique in its high availability support for Windows server clusters. Simpana can replicate data onto clustered Windows servers, but an administrator must activate servers within the cluster to complete/finish a failover operation. CA ARCserve s Replication and High Availability components also include an easy-touse assessment mode tool for performing what if dry runs to assure you have adequate bandwidth for replication. CA ARCserve also offers an Assured Recovery testing feature you can use to perform scheduled or ad-hoc recovery testing at the application level on the replica server, without affecting the production server or impacting the continuous data protection and monitoring. Simpana s less automated approach requires manual intervention and, unfortunately, requires rebooting the server. Simply put, Simpana lacks CA ARCserve s feature-rich, mature ability to replicate, monitor and automatically fail over critical servers. Copyright All rights reserved

24 When we measured RTO/RPO by performing the same disaster recovery test with CA ARCserve s High Availability component that we d done with CA ARCserve s imagebased feature (*see RTO/RPO section above under Image-based Backup), CA ARCserve needed just six seconds to automatically restart the OLTP application at the remote backup site. Simpana s replication feature required an interminable 93 seconds over a minute and a half to recover from the simulated disaster, after which the administrator had to manually restart the OLTP application. Backup Exec 2012 has no high availability feature and thus forfeited the test. Ease of Use and Pricing CA ARCserve s well-formatted and configurable dashboard reveals, at a glance, the current status of your backups. With Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana, visualizing backup status requires several more navigations steps. Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana also show a dashboard display of backup/restore status information, but they re not as revealing nor as configurable as CA ARCserve s. If you have multiple site backups, CA ARCserve, Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana consolidate and centralize backup status information from all sites. Note that one of the Simpana dashboard indicators gives you an at-a-glance reminder of how much of your Simpana licensed capacity you re using. If you exceed that licensed capacity, even for just a moment, the Simpana software phones home to notify CommVault of the excess usage. You see the result in a bill from CommVault, and the size of the bill may astonish you CommVault s charges for excess usage are quite high. We were also disappointed and dismayed to find that CommVault, both in its documentation and in its approach to data protection, considers disaster recovery to be the restoration of a failed Simpana server rather than the recovery of a customer s critical data. To our minds (and perhaps to yours), this is the wrong perspective. To add data to a CA ARCserve or Simpana backup set, you simply point and click to tell it which files or directories to back up and how long to retain them. With Backup Exec 2012's server-centric focus, you have to manipulate one or more server backup jobs to add data to a backup set. Backup Exec 2012 s server-centric interface is difficult and time-consuming to use. For example, navigating Backup Exec's server-centric job backup reports is time-consuming, requiring myriads of clicks, and it s rather uninformative. In the same vein, navigating Simpana's Storage Policy-oriented backup reports can be time-consuming and unproductive. Furthermore, Simpana gave us an unpleasant surprise by requiring us to periodically reorganize and re-index each of the internal CommCell databases. Copyright All rights reserved

25 We re not the only ones disappointed by Backup Exec 2012 s new server-centric user interface. This report s Appendix contains several actual Backup Exec 2012 customer comments regarding its usability. Unlike Backup Exec 2012 and Simpana, CA ARCserve has a Web 2.0 interface that provides real-time access to the latest documentation updates, invaluable technical data, helpful tips and online user communities. Impressively, CA ARCserve s Web 2.0 interface even gives customers virtually direct access to the CA ARCserve development staff and they actually listen to customer suggestions and ideas. CA ARCserve s Web 2.0 interface gave us the ability to remotely access all our protected servers, change configuration settings, check the status of our backups and restores, initiate backup jobs and launch remote recoveries all via the Internet. Data visibility is crucial to data backup reliability. With a single click, CA ARCserve displays a clear and highly descriptive graphical view of backup sets and backed up data. The CA ARCserve image-based backup component s Web 2.0 interface provides realtime access to the latest documentation updates, invaluable technical data, helpful tips and online user communities. Impressively, CA ARCserve s Web 2.0 interface even gives customers virtually direct access to the CA ARCserve development staff and they actually listen to customer suggestions and ideas. Simpana s user interface, which is not intuitive and which requires much more user input to accomplish the same tasks, pales in comparison. CA ARCserve s Web 2.0 interface has meaningful icons, a grasp-at-first-glance view of network objects and pop-up windows for object-specific tasks. It strategically uses multilevel drop-down menus and tabs to organize tasks in a way that aligns perfectly with a network administrator's workflow. Every backup and restore operation is within easy reach of just a few mouse clicks. CA ARCserve makes extensive use of the Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) multipurpose browser-based framework of tools, widgets, controls and methods. CA ARCserve s interface offers a rich set of widgets that resemble elements of native desktop applications. For example, it has built-in support for keyboard navigation, focus and tab handling and drag & drop. Symantec s pricing for Backup Exec 2012 and CommVault s pricing for Simpana 9 are significantly higher than that of CA ARCserve, as shown in the following tables. Copyright All rights reserved

26 Except for the managed capacity offerings, CA ARCserve pricing includes one year of maintenance. Backup Exec 2012 prices also include one year of maintenance. For Simpana 9 maintenance, add 21% to net license price. Symantec Backup Exec 2012 Pricing MSRP Backup Exec 2012 Server $1,162.66/server Symantec System Recovery 2011 $1,280 Backup Exec Small Business Edition $1, for 3 servers Backup Exec Agent for Windows Small Business $928.96/server Edition Backup Exec Agent for Applications and databases $1,162.66/server Backup Exec agent for VMware and Hyper-V $1, Backup Exec Capacity Edition $10, / Terabyte Deduplication Option $1, Enterprise Server Option (contains ADBO) $3, Backup Exec V-Ray Edition - 2 TO 6 CPU cores $1, Backup Exec V-Ray Edition - 8 Plus CPU cores $3, Backup Exec 3600 Appliance $15,995 to $25,995 Backup Exec.cloud - hosted sub annual bill - 10GB $69.96 Be aware that the a la carte Simpana pricing can save you money, but you must know exactly which modules and components you need a daunting challenge. CommVault Simpana 9 Pricing MSRP Per Terabyte of managed capacity $8,000 - $10,000 (a la carte) MSRP CommServe Master Server, Enterprise Edition $5,000 Enterprise Data Management Server, Enterprise Edition $9,500 SRM Reporting Enabler $4,500 SRM Exchange Server agent, per server $1,195 SRM SharePoint Server agent, per server $1,195 SRM MS SQL DB agent, per server $1,395 SRM Oracle DB agent per server $1,395 SRM VMware Agent, per VSA client $500 SRM Unix/Linux FS agent, per server $225 SRM Windows FS agent, per server $225 SRM NAS agent (up to 6 TB), per server $1,995 Media Agent (AIX) $7,500 Copyright All rights reserved

27 Media Agent (Linux) $2,350 Media Agent (Solaris) $7,500 Media Agent (Windows) $2,350 Advanced Disk-Deduplication - Disk Library Capacity License $3,000 Consolidated Data Storage Option $5,000 Conversion license per TB - upgrade Std Disk capacity to CDSO $4,200 capacity Content Store, Private Cloud Storage Gateway $5,000 Tape Drive Management Software (priced per drive) $1,950 CommCell Disaster Recovery License (200+ clients) $8,500 Secondary Copy Data Encryption enabler per MediaAgent $7,500 CommCell Data Erase Enabler $2,500 Granular Recovery Mining Tool pack (Granular Recovery of Exchange, $5,000 SharePoint and Active Directory) External Data Connector (Tier 3) $10,000 Content Indexing Enabler Data Client Connector (10 pack), per host $40,000 Content Director Policy Enabler per CI Index Node $10,000 Virtual Environment Bundle, Tier 4 (Up to 500 VMs) $42,500 Partitioned Unix DB Bundle per host, Tier 4 (50 clients) $60,000 Snap Protection Client-Application Server, per Win/Linux host, choice of $60,000 Application option, 25 client pack (Media storage capacity not included) Snap Protection Client-Application Server, per Unix host, choice of $125,000 Application option, 25 client pack (Media storage capacity not included) Data Replication for Unix $2,930 Data Replication for Windows $1,955 Software Support Software Assurance Annual Cost $262,500 CA ARCserve r16 Pricing MSRP CA ARCserve Backup for Windows Standard Edition Servers $818.40/server CA ARCserve D2D for Windows Standard Edition Servers $512.40/server CA ARCserve Replication for Windows Standard Edition Servers $1,600.50/server CA ARCserve High Availability for Windows Standard Edition Servers $3,250.50/server CA ARCserve Backup with CA ARCserve D2D and CA ARCserve $2,005.20/server Replication for Windows File Server Module CA ARCserve Backup with CA ARCserve D2D and CA ARCserve $2,610.00/server Replication for Windows Database Server Module CA ARCserve Backup with CA ARCserve D2D and CA ARCserve $2,730.00/server Replication for Windows Server Module RPO Managed Capacity: Recover your data in minutes $7,950/Terabyte CA ARCserve Backup + CA ARCserve D2D Advanced Server % for 1 year of Central Applications + file-only CA ARCserve Replication maintenance RTO Managed Capacity: Recover applications in seconds $13,950/Terabyte + Copyright All rights reserved

28 CA ARCserve Backup + CA ARCserve D2D + Central Applications + CA ARCserve Replication + CA ARCserve High Availability Virtual Environment RPO Managed Capacity: Recover your data in minutes CA ARCserve Backup + CA ARCserve D2D Advanced Server + Central Applications + file-only CA ARCserve Replication Virtual Environment RTO Managed Capacity: Recover applications in seconds CA ARCserve Backup + CA ARCserve D2D +Central Applications + CA ARCserve Replication + CA ARCserve High Availability 20% for 1 year of maintenance $795/socket + 20% for 1 year of maintenance (unlimited cores) $1,995/socket + 20% for 1 year of maintenance (unlimited cores) Note that CA ARCserve includes deduplication, archiving, Active Directory granular restore and synthetic full backup in its basic product, at no extra charge. Rankings Summary Simpana 9 Backup Exec 2012 CA ARCserve r16 Image-based backup File-based backup Replication, High Availability Usability Total score Conclusion CA ARCserve is an integrated, reliable, easy-to-use and scalable answer when disaster happens. CA ARCserve offers comprehensive file-based and image-based backup, performs backups and restores faster, offers much better SRM reporting and provides far greater uptime and availability. Moreover, CA ARCserve r16 costs far less than either Backup Exec 2012 or Simpana 9. We recommend CA ARCserve without reservation. In fact, we use it in our own shop. Copyright All rights reserved

29 Vendor Contacts CA Symantec CommVault Copyright All rights reserved

30 Testbed and Methodology Virtually all our testing took place across 512 kb/s frame relay, T1 and T3 WAN links. The testbed network consisted of six Fast Ethernet subnet domains routed by Cisco routers. Our lab's 150 clients consisted of computing platforms that included Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Win7, Macintosh 10.x and Red Hat Linux (both server and workstation editions). The relational databases on the network were Oracle, IBM DB2 Universal Database, Sybase Adaptive Server 12.5 and both Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and The network also contained two Web servers (Microsoft IIS and Apache), three servers (Exchange, Notes and Sendmail) and several file servers (Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 servers). Our virtual computing environments consisted of VMware, XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V. A group of four Compaq Proliant ML570 computers, running Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, was our test platform for all the products server components. A second group of four computers simulated our backup site for disaster recovery. Copyright All rights reserved

31 Appendix Here is a sampling of actual Backup Exec 2012 customer comments from : Menus are now hidden behind other menus, and everything has a completely counter-intuitive feel It really feels like I am clicking more times than I have ever clicked in my life. The transition from 2010 R3 to 2012 has been nothing short of nightmarish." "Removal of the Job Monitor was the single dumbest thing you did, though no doubt you feel very clever about it. It was succinct, allowed a single glance view of both running status and history, and now this info is spread all over the place." "Server Centric what s the point? Backup Exec 2012 reminds me of the horrid mess that Acronis puts you through to manage servers. This server centric approach creates so much extra work. "It's a complete nightmare at my company. I spent weekends and nights trying to make it all working again and I'm still unable to have all my backup working. It has so many bugs that hurts my eyes. You can't even order the Backup sets window by date... or anything. I keep pressing the live update button waiting for this nightmare to end with some kind of update. My backup needs in terms of space have doubled due to the server centric stupid idea." "Wow, I just created more work for myself, because BE 2012 is less intuitive. Whats the best way to rollback to 2010? And what's the best alternative backup product?" So, instead of having 3 jobs to run, I now have 36 to separately manage. The grouping of servers prior to creating new jobs really doesn't help much, as you cannot fine-tune the selection lists until you back out and edit each job separately! "This forum thread stands as a testament to the fact that the reaction to BE 2012 is overwhelmingly negative, despite the impressions that Symantec staff still seem to hold. The people who have taken the time to post comments are your core demographic, not some kind of frustrated niche group that will 'get over it.' " All I want is one backup job. One. Why is that so hard? I used to have that. Do I seriously have to downgrade my client to BE 2010 and start shopping for another solution that will let me do something this simple? "You might as well shop around for a new product... an Enterprise product that offers more features, performance, and support. Almost EVERY product I work with is faster and more consistent than Backup Exec in a shoot-out." What we cannot afford to do is use 2012 and waste valuable hours trying using the CLI to write scripts for something that should be as easy as a click of the mouse in a properly designed GUI." Copyright All rights reserved

32 About the Author Barry Nance is a networking expert, magazine columnist, book author and application architect. He has more than 29 years experience with IT technologies, methodologies and products. Over the past dozen years, working on behalf of, he has evaluated thousands of hardware and software products for ComputerWorld, BYTE Magazine, Government Computer News, PC Magazine, Network Computing, Network World and many other publications. He's authored thousands of magazine articles as well as popular books such as Introduction to Networking (4th Edition), Network Programming in C and Client/Server LAN Programming. He's also designed successful e-commerce Web-based applications, created database and network benchmark tools, written a variety of network diagnostic software utilities and developed a number of special-purpose networking protocols. You can him at [email protected]. About performs independent technology research and product evaluations. Its network laboratory connects myriads of types of computers and virtually every kind of network device in an ever-changing variety of ways. Its authors are networking experts who write clearly and plainly about complex technologies and products. ' experts have written hardware and software product reviews, state-of-the-art analyses, feature articles, in-depth technology workshops, cover stories, buyer s guides and in-depth technology outlooks. Our experts have spoken on a number of topics at Comdex, PC Expo and other venues. In addition, they've created industry standard network benchmark software, database benchmark software and network diagnostic utilities. Copyright All rights reserved