Symantec has announced Backup Exec 15. This product will go into beta in the first quarter of 2015. Although no date has been specified.
One of the biggest changes is that Symantec has dropped 32-bit support for its Media Server. This means that your media server can only run on a 64-bit operating system.
This won’t be a big shock for the Microsoft Exchange community. Exchange Server has required a 64-bit media server for some time.
Whether Symantec will support a media server on Windows 2003 is left to be seen. My guess, sometime between the beta and general release, Symantec will make 2008 a minimum requirement. Especially with Server 2003 going end-of-life in less than 8 months.
The other big news—Cumulative Update 6—this version will officially add support for the latest release of Exchange 2013. Although by the time this goes beta, I expect CU7 to be released.
Wait, there’s more!
Yep, that’s not all. From this release you will get:
- Support for VMware vSphere 2015
- Support for Oracle 12c
- SDR (Simplified Disaster Recovery) support for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 client
- VMware vSphere 5.5 U2
- SQL 2014 as an option for the Backup Exec database
- SCOM for 2007 and 2012
If you’d like to learn more about this beta, perhaps even sign up, then check out the link below.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/backup-exec-15-beta-registration-now-open
What do you think?
We all know that Symantec made a bit of a blunder with Backup Exec 2012.
For me, the GUI was never a problem. It was the shift from job-centric to server-centric. And that seemed to come with its own set of unforeseen drawbacks. Especially if you were a tape user.
The good news–Symantec listened! And kudos to Symantec for doing that! How many software vendors listen to their user base?
The result?
Job-centric made a massive comeback in BUE 2014. If you haven’t upgraded yet, I highly recommend it. It’s what 2012 should have been.
So, how do you feel about Backup Exec 15?
Drop a comment below.
Looking forward to the next version of BE 15! Already excited with the changes Symantec made to BE 2014. Like the Job Monitor and Multi-Server backup feature.
I second every word of what you said! I recently upgraded to Backup Exec 2014 and totally worth every $! Thanks Symantec!