brennels

Just a few more thoughts that might help. using VSS would allow you to do periodic snapshots (every 6 hours for example) but not sure if the snaps will pick up your system state changes. It might I'm just not sure but do know you can tie in VSS into the livewire product I mentioned for for point in time recovery. I know Acronis also does some system state backups so that might also be an option for you but doesn't provide the asynchronous replication that Double-Take, Steeleye or neverfail does. One other option that may be cost effective for you would be to look at the Double-Take sanFly and netBoot products. sanFly allows you to turn any server into an iSCSI device and netBoot allows you to take images from any server or workstation and then boot that image from an iSCSI device. It is pretty cheap and may fit your needs. I think your decision may depend on your RTO and RPO requirements. The nice thing about asynch products is they continuously replicate changes versus periodic snaps but that may not be important to you so snaps may be ok. I was at VMworld last month and Symantech had some integration into virtual center for backups if you are looking for something virtual specific but not sure if that applies to physical servers. - take care

It sounds like you are looking to provide full server recovery including o/s, apps and data and be able to recover to either physical or virtual hardware. I know Double-Take just released livewire which is a many to one full server recovery solution with realtime replication and allows you to restore to dissimilar hardware so actually it is great for hardware upgrades or migrations to new servers. In full disclosure I have been a PM for Double-Take for 7 years and involved with over 1600 installations. Livewire is based on a few core functions that have been inherent to the product for years but it was just re-packaged for a lower cost recovery solution. I think you can download an eval of the product here Livewire for Full Server Data Protection and On-Demand Recovery from Double-Take Software and if not there is at least a few datasheets you can read for more info. Hope this helps, good luck.