Guy,
 
I have noticed your post of 2-21 about network backups and I was waiting for
some responses.  I have not seen any, so I thought I would contribute some
thoughts.  We have quite a bit of experience with network multiplatform
backups as you describe them in your original post and while some may
consider this a plug, they may want to read on nevertheless.
 
Our product runs on multiple platform, but you may want to think of it as 3 gr
oups: MPE, UNIX and PCs.  For UNIX, the product has been cleared for 10+
platforms, such as HP-UX, AIX, OSF1, Ultrix, SCO, DYNIX, and a buch of
others.  For MPE, it runs on MPE/V and MPE/iX.  For PCs it runs on MS-DOS,
Windows, Windows/NT, OS/2 and Novell.   Ok, these are the platforms.  Now,
the product, over the network, can send a backup from one platform to
another.  It can even append the backup of a platform onto a tape containing
the backup from another platform.  Further, a tape created on, for example, a
UNIX platform but containing an NT backup can be used directly on the NT
platform to retrieve an NT file, even if the tape has MPE or UNIX backups as
 well as NT backups on the media.  This flexibility is extremely important
and can only be achieved by a utility which uses its own backup format.  Our
product does just that, and you can see where this is very important in a
multiplatform environment.
 
At the moment, the product backs up to disc, tape, DAT, QIC and M/O media.
 As drivers become available for new media, such as DLT and Video, we add
them to the supported media.  Of course, in a networked, multiplatform
environment, it is essential, even critical, that the solution support DAT
autoloaders and M/O autochangers.  Also some of these devices are rather
expensive and it would be nice to make them available to a variety of
platforms. Our solution does just that.  What you are looking for is a
lights-out, automated backup solution and this type of robotic support is
essential.  By adding the other piece of our offering, the scheduling and
tracking of the backups around the network is fully automated.  It is more
than just a scheduler, it must also be able to detect that a problem may be
occuring with a node, and thus use an alternate node for backup.
 
The first concern you mentionned, about 10 MB LANs being fast enough is very
well justified.  What our solution does is, among other things,  to compress
the data stream before it gets put on the network. This feature enables the
solution to maintain top backup speed, even over the network.
 
As for your final comment, about MPE being part of the solution.  No problem,
our solution enables MPE to be either a client or a server.  This means MPE
can take its own backups, MPE can send its backups to another platform (such
as UNIX) and MPE can receive backups from other platforms, such as
Windows/NT, DOS, Novell or UNIX.  A little secret here, we sell a component,
sort of a listener on MPE, whereby you can use your HP3000 devices to store
the backups from client platforms.  This way you do not have to change your
current backup strategy on MPE, but you can make use of the MPE devices (or
disc) to backup your DOS or Novell or NT or OS/2 or UNIX or you name it,
 platform.
 
I hope this gives you some food for thought, and I hope it answers some of
your questions.  I look forward to your and other folks comments.
 
Kind regards,
 
Denys. . .