What You Need to Know About Microsoft's Storage Product Plans

System Center Data Protection Manager 2006
Microsoft's System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 (DPM) product is a 32-bit disk-based data backup and recovery solution that augments slower and less reliable tape-based systems. The goal here is to provide users with snapshots of recently saved data that they can access via the normal VSC service. That means administrators won't need to get involved every time someone overwrites or mistakenly edits a key document.

As a server-based solution, DPM protects data on your file servers. So you typically install DPM on a separate server, with its own storage, and configure it to monitor (and back up) data from other file servers. Installing and configuring DPM is straightforward, if a bit time-consuming. The product installs a copy of SQL Server 2000a with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Reporting Services, and Microsoft IIS. The DPM management console is clean and straightforward, with modules for monitoring, protection, recovery, reporting, and management. When you first install DPM, you need to configure which disks will be in the storage pool, remotely install a DPM agent on any servers you'll be protecting, then create the protection groups, which specify a set of data to protect and how often it will be protected. You can also configure how much network bandwidth DPM can consume by using bandwidth usage throttling.

DPM needs to be installed on an Active Directory (AD) member server, not a domain controller (DC), which might limit its use in smaller businesses. And, logically enough in my mind, you can't store protected data on the system partition of the server on which DPM is installed. That is, you must offer DPM other physical disks for storage. And you must install a DPM agent on each server you are protecting.

DPM isn't perfect. The product protects only file servers and has no understanding of Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, or other common data stores. Also, DPM can't replace tape-based backup completely. Instead, the product is designed to provide a limited restore window for users. For more permanent long-term backup, you still need to use a traditional tape-based backup solution. In this initial version of the product, DPM is ideal for 5 to 99 servers only, making it a small or medium-sized business product. Larger enterprises might find DPM useful in branch-office situations.

DPM follows the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) licensing model. That is, you can roll out DPM on your own servers or purchase prebuilt DPM servers from OEMs such as HP in appliance and rack-mounted form factors. Future revisions to DPM will natively support Exchange Server, SQL Server, and Windows SharePoint Services, and a 64-bit version will ship in the Longhorn Server timeframe, I'm told.

Windows Server "Longhorn"
When Longhorn Server is released in 2007, it will formalize Microsoft's goals to provide users with market-renowned file servers that have exceptional storage capabilities. It's likely that Longhorn Server will utilize WSS03 R2's SIS technology across all product editions, but at this early stage there's a lot that's not known about Longhorn Server. One of the big questions is whether Longhorn Server will include the SQL Server-based storage engine called WinFS, which should be finished before Longhorn Server is released.

Itanium users should also be aware that the Itanium version of Longhorn Server won't operate as a file server. Instead, this high-end Windows Server version will focus exclusively on three markets: databases, custom applications, and line-of-business (LOB) applications.

Recommendations
Microsoft is gunning for your storage dollars at every conceivable point in the market, although high-end SAN users are unlikely to be swayed by Windows 2003 R2's Storage Manager for SANs, and DPM is currently geared only for small and medium-sized businesses. But it's only a matter of time before Microsoft has the whole market covered.

In the meantime, you should weigh the benefits of Microsoft's integrated and simplified approach against the costs and complexities of third-party solutions. Microsoft's storage moves seem to be targeted to low-end and midmarket companies with moderate storage needs. But when Longhorn Server is released in 2007, you should expect Micro-soft to have revamped its storage products to encompass the demands from any enterprise. Microsoft is after the storage solutions market, so storage solutions providers beware. The competition, as one might expect, should truly benefit all customers.