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IT Weekly Roundup, June 9

From the business wires this week: database backup tools, a virtualization suite and Windows Vista beta.

CommVault announced Wednesday a new feature set for its QiNetix 6.1 Unified Data Management suite that enables storage admins to manage snapshot and backup data across protection, recovery and archive tiers. RecoveryDirector 6.1 provides a single point of control to automatically sequence the creation of multiple point-in-time snapshot images and protects Exchange, SQL Server and Oracle databases, as well as Windows, Linux and UNIX file system data. http://www.commvault.com

TimeSpring Software released Tuesday TimeData for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, software for providing continuous data protection (CDP) to recover lost, corrupt or deleted documents. The program captures all SharePoint data as it changes in real-time to an on- or off-site repository and offers integration with Microsoft applications like SQL Server, Exchange Server, New Technology File System (NTFS) and SharePoint Services. http://www.timespring.com

Acronis Inc. released Acronis Snap Deploy 2.0, a system and software deployment application featuring 64-bit Windows support. The product can restore an image to any hardware or virtual machine and can build three types of media: an ISO image, a bootable configuration that can be placed on an a Microsoft Remote Installation Server, and multiple configurations that can be burned onto a single CD. http://www.acronis.com

VMware will be coming out this month with a new suite of existing and new virtualization tools that more closely reflects what customers want in an all-in-one solution. VMware's Infrastructure 3 is bundled with existing products like ESX Server, Virtual SMP and VirtualCenter, and new ones including a distributed file system that supports management of virtual machines.

For those eagerly waiting to test drive Microsoft's latest rev of Windows, the public beta of Vista is now available, as of Wednesday night. You can get your copy here, but good luck, as Microsoft's servers have been flooded with download requests. However, the company warns that non-geeks should wait for the stable, retail version to come next year, as this is a beta, which means for testing purposes only.

Speaking of retail versions of Windows, make sure your copy is the real thing, or else Big Brother, er, Microsoft will find out -- on a daily basis. The company admitted Wednesday that it wasn't transparent enough with users about its Windows Genuine Advantage tool, which checks if the user's Windows installation is pirated or not. (China...oh boy.)

To get its new anti-virus software off the ground, Microsoft is partnering with Qwest Communications to offer Live OneCare with Qwest's high-speed Internet service to its subscribers.

Microsoft announced Tuesday it's working on a new business intelligence tool called Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 which lets businesses examine and analyze all corporate data, from Word docs to Excel spreadsheets and SQL data, from a centralized console. The product will beta this fall and roll out for mass consumption in mid-2007.

Also worth mentioning: Avaya will be operating the largest data and voice network ever at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, according to the New Jersey-based IP communications provider. It expects that over the next 31 days, 15 trillion bytes of information will flow across the network -- connecting 12 stadiums -- it designed for the World Cup as one of the official sponsors. For more info, visit Avaya's special World Cup site.

About the Author

Dan Hong is the associate Web editor of MCPmag.com, CertCities.com, TCPmag.com, Redmondmag.com and RCPmag.com.

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