Data Protection Manager closer to shipping...

The new Data Protection Manager is almost done! From Infoworld:

Microsoft has completed production of its disk-based data backup and recovery system and will release the product to manufacturing in the next 30 days, said Ben Matheson, group product manager for DPM at Microsoft. The vendor also has set the pricing for the product at $950 for one DPM server and the ability to protect three other file servers. Microsoft has completed production of its disk-based data backup and recovery system and will release the product to manufacturing in the next 30 days, said Ben Matheson, group product manager for DPM at Microsoft. The vendor also has set the pricing for the product at $950 for one DPM server and the ability to protect three other file servers.

For some, DPM seems too revolutionary - for example Josh Meier from Ars Technica misses the point on how DPM would integrate enterprise backup solution. DPM is not a complete replacement for tape backup - it is a complementary solution that can go in parallel with a tape-based backup. In fact, DPM already has integrated support for tape-oriented backup as well, in addition of providing fast recovery abilities at the file level.

Microsoft designed DPM from the ground up to interoperate with existing tape-based backup and recovery products, but recommends that customers use disk as well because of the unreliability and time-consuming nature of tape.

"DPM doesn’t really replace anything; it's designed to be complementary," Matheson said. "Ninety percent or more customers rely on tape backup, but when it comes time to do recovery, it’s slow and unreliable ... we are advocating that customers have a disk-to-disk-to-tape backup scenario."

(update - fixing link)