Backup Exec Archives - Latest News from Backup Technology

Free Migration Available to Asigra Backup Solution

Leeds, United Kingdom: Backup Technology (BTL), which specialises in online backup & disaster recovery services for global enterprises, is offering a lifeline to Symantec customers affected by the American company�s decision to close down its Backup Exec.cloud service.

The offer of a free migration to all Backup Exec.cloud customers comes after BTL moved Datek Solutions to its Asigra-based backup solution platform just days after the UK IT consultancy received an email from Symantec saying it would end its Backup Exec.cloud and stop selling subscriptions or renewals in Jan 2014.� Datek is now centrally managing its multiple customers from BTL�s web-based monitoring portal.

Dave Twilley, Technical Services Manager for Datek Solutions, said: �A lot of our customers rely totally on cloud backup for things like exchange data and sensitive documentation so as soon as we got the end of life email from Symantec we knew we needed to act quickly. We spoke to BTL on the Friday and by the Monday morning all of our customer�s data was fully backed up. They did a great job.�

BTL is now offering a free migration service to all Backup Exec.cloud customers. This will allow them to run BTL�s stable enterprise backup solution alongside the Symantec solution free of charge until the drop dead date of their contract.

Rob Mackle, Sales Manager and Channel Sales Manager EMEA for BTL, said: �Symantec�s announcement has left a lot of customers in limbo. We moved Datek onto our enterprise backup solution quickly and smoothly to ensure their customers were not left exposed from the EOL announcement and we�re now offering free migration to anyone else affected by Symantec�s decision. Once migrated, they can run our Asigra solution in tandem with Backup Exec.cloud to see if it�s the right fit for them and to build up their data history.�

Asigra is the world�s leading online backup software developer and BTL is its largest global partner. The BTL offering provides an Enterprise and WAN optimised solution, allowing large amounts of data to be protected over small bandwidth connections.� BTL’s proprietary portal enables centralised web-based monitoring and consolidated daily emails giving customers full transparency of backups on a real time basis.

BTL, which is part of UK cloud company iomart Group, currently protects over 15 petabytes of data in the public and private cloud for customers including Siemens, British Red Cross, WPP, Pernod Ricard and Liverpool and Everton football clubs.

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Symantec have announced that they will soon cease to offer new subscriptions or renewals for Backup Exec.cloud, citing a lack of mobile and content sharing features, and unsuitability for delivering them in the future.

Backup Exec.cloud was first released in February 2012 and was aimed at giving remote branch offices and SMBs a simple method of backing up their data.

The announcement has so far only been made officially to channel partners; Symantec planned to notify end-users in December. However, the email announcement was seen by IDG, and has predictably gone viral.

Despite pulling Backup Exec.cloud, Symantec did announce in the same email that they were working on new “feature-rich” applications, also cloud based, which will offer what Backup Exec can’t. These include the sharing and mobile access features that Symantec themselves admit Backup Exec.cloud was not designed to do.

The shutdown of .cloud appears to come as part of an overall streamlining movement across Symantec, with President and CEO Steve Bennet leading the way in an effort to promote integration of Symantec’s product portfolio. As an outsider looking in, it seems that for all of Symantec’s products, they can’t as yet offer the features necessary for modern businesses.

Like many products coming to their end of life, support of Backup Exec.cloud will continue for another year, until January 2015. However, not many subscribers will be waiting long before they think about replacement products. Symantec will also be releasing information about refunds of multi-year subscribers at a later date, but did mention that customers would be entitled to Backup Exec-on premises (the ageing tape or disc edition of the software) software at a 35% discounted price. For many this will not suffice as it is not an off-site backup product, and therefore can’t substitute for the cloud format.

Users will have to migrate their own data to any alternative service without the assistance of Symantec, something which is to be expected.�Customers’ data in the cloud will be deleted after their subscriptions expire.