Though Joseph swears by Symantec, he'd like to see more enhancements to Backup Exec's virtual capabilities. He's running the program as a virtual machine via Microsoft Virtual Server now, but he would like to back up virtual files as well as physical ones. Also, Joseph's group hasn't opted for the SPN storage option for Backup Exec. They don't need it, and Joseph says they aren't ready to perform the network upgrades to fiber or dedicated T1 lines they'd need to make it work really well.
Since Symantec is aiming the first iterations of SPN at SMBs, not enterprise customers, many shops may share Joseph's viewpoint.
But Symantec isn't planning to change the SMB approach, not even to compete more closely with EMC's enterprise focus. "Our current plan is to stay focused on optimizing our offerings for the SMB market," says a spokesperson. "However, there is nothing architecturally that limits us from delivering services to enterprises, and we will respond if and when customers ask us to."
Another question with a vague answer concerns whether Symantec will ever support NetBackup, and non-Windows operating environments, with SPN. "There's always a chance that we may do that later," Greene says.
Hopefully, now that Symantec has some much-needed integration under its belt, "later" won't take another three years.
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