New Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server Added to Backup Exec

Symantec Corp. announced a management plug-in for VMware vCenter Server available to Backup Exec 2010 customers, allowing them to reduce the complexity of managing backups in VMware-virtualized environments.

Scheduled to be available by early next year, the new plug-in for VMware vCenter Server provides a view of virtual machines and exposes granular details of virtual machine backups – all from within the VMware vCenter Server console or the VMware vSphere Client.

"While the move to virtual environments promises cost savings and infrastructure flexibility, it requires new ways of approaching data protection," said Amit Walia, vice president of product management for Backup Exec, Symantec. "Backup Exec protects more than 40,000 VMware hosts and an estimated one million VMware guests, and the new Backup Exec Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server further extends this leadership by helping customers save time and reduce the risk of unprotected data in virtual environments."

The Backup Exec Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server works with the core Backup Exec virtualization features to provide a consolidated protection status view of all virtual machines within the VMware vCenter Server or VMware vSphere Client.

Customers can view:

• The last run of backup and next scheduled backup
• The type of backup (full, incremental, differential) and backup policy
• Specific information on the backup job logs
• Potential risky policies such as unprotected virtual machines

"The strong technology partnership between VMware and Symantec enables our joint customers to reap the comprehensive benefits of our solutions to deliver faster VMware backups, easier recovery, and effective management while reducing overall cost and complexity," said Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware. "Customers are increasingly moving production workloads into VMware environments, and Symantec Backup Exec provides a simplified way to help them protect and manage these environments."

"IT organizations need full visibility into their virtual environment so they can identify unprotected virtual servers and areas of potential risk. Symantec Backup Exec Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server is a simple new feature that provides real value to customers through costs savings and easier management, and, importantly, reducing the chances of unprotected workloads newly introduced into the virtual environment," said Lauren Whitehouse, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

A VMware Ready solution, Backup Exec 2010 provides a single tool that allows companies to protect physical and virtual servers, manage disk and tape targets, backup full machines and individual files, plus execute hot backups and restores of applications and databases in virtual environments. Patent pending Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) means customers can restore individual files, folders and application data from a single image-level backup, eliminating the time and storage requirements of a second file-level backup.