Introduction, Background – Dell PowerVault DL2100 User Manual
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ESG LAB VALIDATION
Dell PowerVault DL2000 Powered by Symantec Backup Exec
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Copyright
2008, The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
The Dell PowerVault DL2000 is designed to provide broad-spectrum data protection for physical and virtual
systems for small and medium-sized businesses in a turn-key appliance. This ESG Lab Validation explores how
the DL2000, pre-installed with Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 software, can be deployed to protect critical data in
about 20 minutes. This report also explores how the DL2000 can be used to protect Microsoft applications by
providing tightly integrated backup and granular recovery of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS),
Exchange, SQL Server, and Active Directory, as well as VMware and Microsoft virtual servers.
Background
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), defined as having fewer than 1,000 employees, are faced with
many of the same data protection challenges as their counterparts in the enterprise. In addition to performance
and reliability, smaller businesses must frequently make do with backup administration and tape management
performed by untrained IT staff. In a recent survey of more than 500 IT professionals and executives in medium-
sized businesses, ESG research found that the number one reported storage environment challenge was the
need to improve backup and recovery processes.
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FIGURE 1. TOP STORAGE CHALLENGES AMONG MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES
Accelerated growth of stored data, the cost of the systems and capacity required to keep pace with that growth,
and tight budgets were also significant issues. In addition, IT professionals in small businesses (defined as less
than 100 users) told ESG that 16% of all attempted restores failed. Said another way, nearly 1 in every 6
attempts was unable to successfully recover needed data.
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Looking at all of these
challenges together, it‘s clear
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Source: ESG Research Report, Medium-Sized Business Survey, June 2008
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Source: ESG Research Report, Data Protection Market Trends, January 2008