Leading Market Research Firm Validates Symantec’s Leadership in Data Protection and Storage Management Due to Strong Demand for Innovative Solutions

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced its strong leadership showing in IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker(1) for the second calendar quarter of 2008 in several key categories, including data protection, storage infrastructure and file system software. Symantec’s 26.9 percent overall storage software market share growth nearly doubled that of the overall storage software market growth due to strong demand of its innovative solutions, including NetBackup, Backup Exec and Storage Foundation.

“This report validates Symantec’s commitment to providing market leading, heterogeneous storage software solutions that enable our customers to better secure and manage their data,” said John Magee, vice president of product marketing, Symantec. “Our strength in storage software is a result of Symantec’s strategy to provide truly independent software that solves the most pressing problems in the data center today.”

Symantec Next Generation Data Protection Solutions Lead Storage Software Market

According to IDC, Symantec maintained its leadership position for data protection and recovery software with 35.2 percent market share, nearly three times its nearest competitor. The NetBackup and Backup Exec product families drove year-over-year growth for Symantec, outpacing the overall market with 22.8 percent growth. This growth was driven by strong demand for Symantec’s data protection solutions that integrate next generation technologies to provide the most complete enterprise protection, offer comprehensive disk-based backup and deliver market-leading recovery capabilities.

Furthering its data protection leadership, Symantec recently announced the latest versions of its Backup Exec product family to enable users to easily protect their data and systems in a physical and virtual environment through one, simplified solution, as well as new support for the Windows Server 2008 portfolio. Additionally, in June at its Vision user conference, Symantec announced the company’s Next Generation Data Protection strategy with a series of product updates to the NetBackup platform that extend its market leading deduplication and virtualization solutions.

Innovative Storage Management Solutions Drive Industry Leadership

In the file system category, Symantec captured more than half of the market share with 50.9 percent. According to IDC, the company outperformed the market growth rate for the storage infrastructure software category with 20.2 percent growth year-over-year — moving Symantec into the leadership position with 28.7 percent market share.

Innovations in the Veritas Storage Foundation product family have also driven storage management leadership. In June of this year, Symantec announced Veritas Virtual Infrastructure, the first solution to offer advanced storage capabilities for virtual server environments that effectively manage storage in large scale, x86 production environments. Symantec furthered its support for the Windows platform in March with the announcement of the latest versions of Veritas Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server for Windows.

IDC’s report tracks several categories within the overall storage software market, including data protection and recovery software, storage infrastructure, file systems, storage management software, archiving software, storage replication software and storage device management.

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help businesses and consumers secure and manage their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.

Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, Q2 2008

October 27, 2008 (Computerworld) NASA scientists late last week were hopeful that the latest attempt to fire up the Hubble Space Telescope’s long-dormant backup computer will be successful.

An effort to start the system a week earlier was halted because of two “anomalies,” said Art Whipple, chief of NASA’s Hubble systems management office at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Whipple said the main systems on the 18-year-old orbiting observatory were running smoothly late last Thursday, shortly after the backup computer was restarted.

He noted that the scientific instruments will remain in safe mode while NASA engineers gauge how the main system is holding up.

The agency hoped to take the first such instrument — a camera — out of safe mode over this past weekend, Whipple said. Another piece of equipment, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, is slated to be taken out of safe mode later this week, he added.

Whipple said that at least one of the two anomalies was a “transient” event that likely stemmed from the fact that the backup system has been sitting idle for the 18 years it has been hurtling around Earth at 17,500 mph.

“There doesn’t appear to be any permanent damage,” Whipple said.

The agency was forced to turn to the backup system after the failure of an onboard computer that had been online since the launch of the Hubble in 1990. That computer was designed by IBM in the 1970s and built by the former Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp.

This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld’s print edition.

No Monkey Business Here Folks…

Site is up and running and we are looking good, what more can a man ask for?

That’s right my friends, things are looking good here at my end, I have the site up and running and now all it needs is decent content to get your teeth into. Remember to save our site in your RSS feeds since I will be giving you some sound advice on how to better protect your software using our recommended software programmes.

I will also show you how to backup different types of data from Mail, Music, Movies/Videos and much, much more!

Below is a short list of what I have in store for the future.

1. More articles on backing up CORRECTLY!
2. More articles on using Acronis software
3. Tips and Tricks on getting the best out of your backup policies!
4. Free downloads of the hottest backup software known to man!

And much, much more!

Keep your eyes pilled (Or sign up to our RSS Feeds) as you will be getting some highly wanted information very soon!