Veritas Backs Into Exchange

Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) on Wednesday unleashed the latest version of its backup software aimed at the Windows market, eager to grab what it can as this functionality gets increasingly subsumed into operating systems (see Veritas Lifts Lid on Backup Exec 9).

Two years in the works, Backup Exec 9.0 is geared toward small-to-midsized businesses running Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows platforms. Specifically, the software is designed to back up Microsoft Exchange email servers and is supposedly 88 percent faster at backing up a single mailbox than the previous version, Backup Exec 8.6.

It also allows restoration of individual public folders and attachments and includes a "bare-metal recovery" feature that speeds up the laborious task of reinstalling the operating system, applications, and data in the event of a hard disk failure.

Veritas insists that rather than being pushed out of the picture by new storage features in Microsoft's operating systems, its software is actually designed to leverage the storage components in the upcoming Windows 2003 Server (formerly called .NET). For example, Veritas claims, Backup Exec coordinates the steps for snapshot and online backup procedures performed by Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) (see Microsoft Hashes Out Storage Map).

"Microsoft is helping us make our products better and easier to install by creating API [application programming interface] sets that take advantage of our software," says Mike Ivanov, director of product management for Windows solutions at Veritas. "They are not out there trying to replace what we are doing."Analysts say there will always be dynamic tension between Microsoft and its technology partners, but that the software giant will leave just enough room for other independent software vendors (ISVs) to add value to all things Microsoft.

"It's a sign of a mature market and is analogous to IBM Corp.'s [NYSE: IBM] mainframe OS market where IBM built much into MVS, for example, but left enough on the table for ISVs like Candle to, in effect, offer a degree of OS customization and make a healthy living at the same time," says John Webster, senior analyst and founderof Data Mobility Group. "That, I believe, will be Veritas's lot in life in the world of Windows."

Of course, to some extent, Veritas will have to play catchup to other vendors that have well established positions in products for backing up Microsoft Exchange, including KVS, Persist Technologies Inc., Educom TS Inc., and NSI Software (see NSI Notches $15M