EMC Retrospect 7.7 for VMware Consolidated Backup and Windows 7

EMC Corporation announced an upgrade to its Retrospect backup and recovery for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Available immediately, EMC Retrospect 7.7 adds several new capabilities, including integration with VMware Consolidated Backup, which allows Retrospect to perform off-host backups of active virtual machines. Other new features include complete protection for computers running Microsoft Windows 7, a new Retrospect Emergency Recovery CD for quick disaster recovery of Windows servers and PCs, wake-on-LAN technology for improved energy conservation, and full support for 64-bit processors and operating systems.

"Because of the cost-savings realized from systems virtualization, its use in small and medium businesses is on the rise," said Peter Wharton, Vice President of Marketing, the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. "By integrating with VMware Consolidated Backup, EMC Retrospect is able to provide complete backups of virtualized systems without impacting the performance of those systems. This functionality allows SMBs implementing virtualization to enjoy a similar level of protection seen in the enterprise."

Critical data in small and medium businesses is not always corralled on servers. Instead, such data is normally found distributed across servers, desktops, and laptops. As a result, Retrospect is frequently employed to protect all the computers in an organization. Designed for this task, EMC Retrospect 7.7 now provides complete backup and recovery of computers running Microsoft Windows 7, and it can also wake Windows and Mac computers that are in standby (sleep) mode, allowing those systems to await backup in a low power usage state and providing significant cost savings over time.

With previous versions, Retrospect users could purchase a Disaster Recovery add-on that provided bootable-CD recovery for Windows servers and PCs that would not startup on their own. Now with version 7.7, this capability is included at no additional cost with Retrospect Multi Server, Single Server, Small Business Server, Disk-to-Disk, and Professional. The Retrospect Emergency Recovery CD, which can be downloaded as an ISO image from the Web site’s company with a valid license code, will start up most computers running Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, Server 2008, or Server 2003 and then allow them to be restored with Retrospect directly.  

Several improvements to Retrospect’s architecture are also present in this release. One of the most significant of those changes is the use of a new 64-bit engine. This allows Retrospect 7.7 to utilize more than four gigabytes of RAM to back up even larger datasets than previous versions.

Product Availability
EMC Retrospect 7.7 for Windows is available immediately from Retrospect resellers as an electronic download; boxed product is en route to distributors and will be available from resellers shortly.  Individuals and organizations that purchased a Retrospect 7.6 license on or after November 7, 2009, qualify for a free upgrade to Retrospect 7.7.

New product and version upgrade prices
from previous editions are listed below:
(All prices are suggested retail prices in U.S. dollars.)

• Retrospect Multi Server 7.7: $1,409 new, $299 upgrade from 7.6 and earlier. Protects an unlimited number of networked Windows, Mac, and Linux servers, desktops, and laptops.
• Retrospect Single Server 7.7: $679 new, $169 upgrade from 7.6 and earlier. Protects a single Windows server and an unlimited number of networked Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops and laptops; additional server client licenses are available separately.
• Retrospect Small Business Server Premium and Standard 7.7: Premium: $729 new, $169 upgrade from 7.6 and earlier. Standard: $479 new, $119 upgrade from 7.6 and earlier. Protects a Windows Small Business Server and an unlimited number of networked Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops and laptops; Premium edition includes license for Microsoft SQL Server; additional server client licenses are available separately.
• Retrospect Disk-to-Disk 7.7: $379 new, $99 upgrade from 7.6 and earlier. Protects a single Windows server to hard disk or optical media; additional server client licenses, desktop/laptop client licenses are available separately.
• Retrospect Professional 7.7: $119 new, $29 upgrade from 7.6 and earlier. Protects a single, non-server Windows PC and up to two additional networked Windows, Mac, or Linux desktops and laptops; additional desktop/laptop client licenses are available separately.

EMC Retrospect 7.7 for Windows is currently available in English only; localized language editions are expected to be available early next year in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.