Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM) revolutionizes the way IT managers can build data protection strategies for their networks. A member of the Microsoft System Center family of management products, DPM 2007 delivers continuous data protection for Microsoft application and file servers to a seamlessly integrated secondary disk and tape solution on the DPM server. By using disk technology rather than tape drives as the primary backup media, DPM allows rapid and reliable recovery. Simplicity of operation and low cost of implementation makes DPM 2007 the preferred backup-and-restore solution for organizations of all sizes.

Microsoft designed DPM 2007 with special attention to protecting and recovering SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, SharePoint Portal Server, Microsoft Virtual Server, as well as Windows file services. This allows administrators who are not experts in any or all of these technologies to recover data easily and accurately. DPM 2007 continuously protects the core Microsoft server workloads to a DPM server or appliance, which then allows disk-based recovery and tape-based, long-term archival storage for a complete data protection and recovery solution.

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• IT managers need to have fast access to all the backup media required for a specific recovery
• All tapes must have no unreadable spots despite the fact that, in typical situations, they have been subject to physical wear by being rewritten many times
• Tapes must have been stored in the right environmental conditions to remain usable
• The software catalogs managing those tapes must not be corrupted
• Complex electromechanical tape drives must be available and working properly

The decisive disadvantage of tape as a backup-and-restore technology is that tape is slow. Tape backup typically calls for routinely scheduled system downtime, and tape-based recovery procedures can take intolerably long even when everything is working perfectly. Virtually all facets of contemporary businesses are becoming increasingly dependent on ready access to digital information, and the amount of data that companies generate to remain competitive is expanding dramatically. This growing reliance on networked data makes every minute of downtime more calamitous, while the ballooning volume of data being created adds steadily to the time required for tape-based backup and recovery.  

Finally, tape-based backup and recovery regimes are logistically complex and demand substantial time and care to administrate. Media has to be managed, cataloged, and stored in a way that allows for consistent backup and accurate recovery, but issues such as personnel changes, company relocations, the need to accommodate remote offices, maintaining tape-friendly temperature and humidity in the storage facility, and the hassle of validation testing all invite human error or omission and inflate IT budgets. In essence, while tape technology remains a reasonable means of long-term archiving, it is becoming continually less viable as a technology for on-line backup and restoration.