Microsoft has launched System Center Data Proctection Manager, a product that has been in beta for a year. The DPM is a disk-to-disk continuous data backup product. Similiar to IBM’s Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files that was launched last month. Continuous data backup is being touted as a replacement for tape drives, and boasts faster file recovery, while being less expensive.

From the overview:

Disk-based Backup Solution with Data Protection Manager

As the latest member of the Windows Server System family, Data Protection Manager (DPM) is a server software application that optimizes disk-based backup and recovery. Backing up data to disk provides the fastest way to recover data lost because of user error or software and hardware corruption. With DPM, recovering information is as simple as browsing a share and copying directly from to the production server.

DPM lets IT administrators easily and affordably use existing Windows Server investments such as Active Directory, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003. DPM provides these unique capabilities:
• Rapid and reliable data recovery. DPM provides rapid and reliable recovery of data lost because of user error or server hardware failure.
• Efficient and near-continuous data protection. DPM uses efficient byte-level replication to deliver faster backup and less potential data loss.
• Operational Simplicity. DPM lowers the total cost of your data protection environment by improving the efficiency of your operations.

DPM requires a Windows 2003 server with a designated drive to be the storage pool. And the servers it “protects” must be members of Active Directory. The domain server must be Windows 2003 server or Windows 2000 server w/ Service Pack 3.