Any business and IT manager knows the absolute necessity to have all data backed up. This article goes over the specifics of ARCserver Backup r15 and Backup Exec 2010. In it, we delve into the top features of each product and tell the results of our comparison of both backup programs. Here you will see the pros and cons of each and be able to make an informed decision on which backup software is right for your business.

CA ARCserve Backup r15:

CA ARCserve Backup 15 delivers industry leading, enterprise-class data protection for a wide range of operating environments. In business change is constant: staffs change/grow, new offices are developed and, typically, you are the one on the hook to make sure your data is always protected. ARCserve Backup r15 goes beyond backup; giving small & medium sized businesses highly reliable data protection with centralized management that makes sense—no matter how complex your data or structure is—at a fraction of the cost of the competition. Reduce your backup storage by up to 80%. ARCserve is the only product that combines data deduplication, granular restore of applications like Active directory, exchange and share-point and infrastructure visualization for both physical and virtual servers in a single package, so your data is always secure which means you can spend your time on other more pressing issues. ARCserve Backup r15 is mature, capable, fast and inexpensive.

ARCserve r15 Features:

• Centralized Supervision & Admin Utilizes a three-tier structural design that allows your administrators to handle, transform and manage backup and restore jobs, media devices, activity logs, alerts, catalogs, product licensing and reports from a sole point that spans local and remote servers and locations.
• Restore hold up & Advance backup, Employs detailed agents to support your core applications together with Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Share-Point Server, Oracle, Lotus Domino, SAP R/3 and Sybase and helps you guarantee data integrity by protecting the operation log, documentation log and diary files and all linked data.
• Well-organized backup process characteristic data deduplication and SRM reporting functionality that eliminates redundant data, reduces storage costs, enables you to store more healing points on a given disk and provides helps you get better the performance and consistency of your backup.
• Lithe backup methods contain backup to disk, backup to tape, D2D2T backup, VTL and Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service & hardware snapshot support, make available you with high-performance, non-disruptive backup and restore operations that meet the detailed requirements.
• WAN Bandwidth Optimized remote office backups enable you to replicate remote office data to your central data center and perform non-disruptive replica server backups that eliminate the need to implement a tape-based backup, you better utilize your existing backup resources and save time and money. It’s a no-cost, built-in feature with ARC serve.
• Replication Integration enables you to browse and backup replicated data, restore data to the production or replica server, create synthetic full backups, view CA XOsoft Replication reports and launch the CA XOsoft graphical user interface (GUI) from within the CA ARC serve GUI.
• Enables you to leverage the performance and scalability benefits of 64-bit hardware platforms in your backup servers and protect applications running on 64-bit operating systems.
• Integrates Windows authentication into the audit and role management process, improving your ability to determine and control which users have full access to backup resources and which ones have limited permissions.
• Provides password management capabilities for encryption keys, shortening the time it takes to recover encrypted backup data and eliminating the need to repeatedly provide passwords for recovery purposes.
• Simplifies the backup of Oracle databases and supports the backup of Oracle databases on both 32- and 64-bit platforms.

Symantec Backup Exec 2010:

Symantec Backup Exec 2010 delivers top backup and recovery safeguards from server to desktop. Without a doubt, it provides extra protection for your data, meanwhile reducing storage costs and improving backup performance with side-to-side integrated deduplication and archiving technology. Shrink business downtime with unrivaled technology that recovers critical Microsoft applications and VM-ware or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments in seconds. Meet your recovery point objectives with nonstop data protection to ensure consistent recovery of a complete application and efficiently restore a granular email or individual file/folder. Symantec Backup Exec also delivers centralized management to simply expand your backup infrastructure across a circulated environment and remote office, so your server and desktop data security is effortlessly managed from a central office as your business grows. Resourcefully control both Windows and non-Windows systems through a single console—including  UNIX, Linux, MAC, and NetWare, together with remote media server support for Linux servers. Generally, Backup Exec 2010 is designed to readily optimize any Windows data protection line of attack helping you protect more data while utilizing less storage overall, saving you time and money.

Backup Exec 2010 Features:

• Delivers market-leading Windows data safety with more than 1.5 million consumers worldwide.
• Shrink storage space costs even as optimizing network utilization through integrated deduplication and archiving technology.
• First-to-market granular recovery for Exchange, SQL and Active Directory environments consecutively in a VM-ware and Microsoft Hyper-V environment.
• Deduplication and archiving, advantage, unremitting data protection eliminating backup windows altogether, speeding up data healing, and enabling end users to pull through their hold files without IT involvement.
• Backup Exec 2010 also delivers exclusive rights pending Granular revival Technology allowing businesses to get better data in seconds, as well as business-critical information such as individual email messages, folders, and documents, from a single backup.
• A non-compulsory centralized administration console provides scalable organization of circulated backup servers. New infrastructure administration is also on hand for easy inventory, deployment and upgrades of Backup Exec licenses and software patches even if a single console.
• Improved Agent for venture Vault automates backup and healing of both Enterprise Vault 8 and 9 with the backup. All of these tools trim down the time and capital needed to install and run Backup Exec, while improving on the whole backup performance.
• Exec 2010 delivers an uncomplicated to mange interface and calendar/chart vision to rapidly follow and check backup and recovery jobs. In adding up, Backup Exec simplifies installation and backups with its Pre Install Environment manager, which highlights any possible issues earlier than the software is installed.
• General, classy database and groupware agents and storage options easily enlarge data protection to protect to critical applications and provide additional flexibility for virtually any storage environments.
• 2010 discovers potential troubles that grounds job failures, and then report the administrator so that corrective action can be taken. Realize further reimbursement with automatic discovery of new resources, which enables administrators to create a job for detecting new, unprotected resources that are at risk and in need of backup.

Ease of Use:

ARCserve Backup’s performance edges out that of Backckup Exec. Additionally, CA ARCserve Backup r15 has an intuitive, easy-to-navigate user interface. For example, ARCserve’s considerately designed dashboard reveals, at a glance, the current status of your backup/restore activities. In contrast, Symantec’s Backup Exec 2010 lacks the ability to speedily drill down to demonstrate the level of features that ARCserve shows. However, Backup Exec does give a constructive real-time general idea of backup/restore standing information.

Data visibility is critical when you’re attempting to put the right data in the right place so you can carry on normal business operations after a data restore. CA ARCserve Backup r15 has a built-in graphical display of what was backed up and when, which makes working with backup copies a breeze. Symantec’s response comes in the form of a third-party vendor (Altiris) that Symantec acquired. It is a little more difficult to use and has a user interface quite separate from Backup Exec. Buy Backup Exec 2010 or ARCserver Backup r15 today!

Farhan-ud-Din Bhatti contributed to this article.