Symantec Says It'll Put Data On Road To Recovery

The LiveState Recovery line, slated for release this week, aims to enable full system restoration for servers and PCs in the event of a cataclysmic network meltdown, said L.D. Weller, senior product manager at Symantec, Cupertino, Calif.

Symantec’s LiveState Recovery Advanced Server 3.0, LiveState Recovery Standard Server 3.0 and LiveState Recovery Desktop 3.0 are disk-based system and data-recovery products that can take full server and storage snapshots on-the-fly at a rate considerably faster than tape-based backup systems, Weller said.

The Advanced Server and Desktop products can be programmed to run event-driven backup routines when network threats such as virus attacks or tricky procedures such as application or patch deployments are induced. The Standard Server product lacks such functionality, and its lower price point better suits less-critical servers such as print and file servers, Weller said.

Symantec is marketing the new LiveState products to high-end enterprises and as an alternative to adding new tape backup systems, Weller said.

Dave Glenn, vice president of marketing at Creative Breakthroughs, a Symantec partner in Shelby Township, Mich., said midsize-business customers seem interested in adopting the LiveState products as the primary way to protect their server and storage data. Enterprises, however, typically are more sluggish about retiring tape and handing over the keys to LiveState, he said.

“In smaller firms we are able to offer something with LiveState that was only available to large-scale EMC customers in the past,” Glenn said. “If enterprises adopt it, it’s more to augment their existing tape backup solutions.”

On the flip side, many large enterprises are following the lead of the federal government and relaxing the requirements that tape be a part of data backup and recovery, said Susan Jabbusch, vice president of Carolina Advanced Digital, a Symantec partner in Siler City, N.C., that services a number of government accounts. Dropping requirements for tape opens the door for products like LiveState, she said.

LiveState Recovery Advanced Server 3.0 is priced from $1,194 per server. Standard Server 3.0 starts at $834 per server, and Recovery Desktop 3.0 starts at $69 per PC.