October 3, 2005

Last week, Microsoft began shipping its SCDPM (Systems Center Data Protection Manager) software to address data backup from Windows 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows Storage servers, many of which are used in the B2B sector.

SCDPM costs $950 for one license and protection for as many as three file servers, and is designed to address data restoration within the context of failed systems, not data archiving.

That's one of the factors that induces Mike Karp, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, to conclude that, "There's not a whole lot of storage intelligence in these things. Microsoft doesn't bring a lot of storage expertise into the marketplace."

This is particularly relevant given that basic data backup and recovery is the most mature segment of the storage marketplace, and that a slew of vendors big and small -- e.g., EMC, Veritas, Backbone, and CommVault -- all play in this space.

Moreover, the incumbent storage management experts address a broader range of functionality than Microsoft.

Take archiving, for example. Many companies choose to back up certain kinds of data at certain time intervals, and in doing so they want as much automation as possible.

"With the software, you're not sending out a guy to check on machine 26," quips Karp. In other words, storage management at the high level manages both the processes and the devices involved, so if someone puts a new machine on the SAN [storage area network], it's automatically discovered. Clearly, Karp says, this level of automation is where the "big savings" are, and basic backup is more akin to commoditized technology.

This does not mean that there is little opportunity for Microsoft. There are untold thousands of Windows servers in the marketplace, and Redmond is therefore playing a volume game with Microsoft shops who have very basic storage management needs.

Even so, Microsoft is not alone in this segment; EMC, Backbone, and Yosemite, to name three vendors, do disc-to-disc backup and recovery in the Microsoft environment in addition to addressing more complex storage management functions.

Obviously, Microsoft can afford to buy whatever functionality it needs and the foray into lower-level storage management could be a proof-of-value exercise for Redmond.

One background motivation could be Microsoft's renewed interest in enterprise content management (ECM), of which storage is definitely a part. "I'm sure they have lots of research going on in this area," concludes Karp. "Their M&A [mergers and acquisitions] team is probably looking at several companies."

Source: Line 56