One of the lesser-known data protection players last week announced a new version of its business continuity and disaster recovery software that lets users simplify the management of data protection environments. Unitrends announced Rapid Recovery 4.0, a software package that sports a new Web 2.0 Rich Internet Application-based management console. The console lets users run either on-demand or scheduled backups for client systems or for vaulting data from Unitrends Data Protection Units (DPU) or Data Protection Vaults.

Previously, Rapid Recovery had separate management consoles for its backup and disaster recovery operations that required administrators to schedule backup jobs separately for each DPU. (Compare Data Backup and Replication products)

A new backup wizard lets users not only simplify backups but provides reporting that the user can customize and export in XML or CSV formats to products such as CrystalReports or Microsoft’s Excel.

Additionally, Unitrends added the ability to create alerts based on error conditions for Microsoft Exchange and Workspace backups. Unitrends has also added a capacity feature that tracks the number of licenses used and notifies the customer when they may need to buy more.

The company has also added increased protection for Novell NetWare, which includes support for Novell’s GroupWise collaboration platform and eDirectory, as well as both physical and virtual NetWare servers. The company is expected to support Windows 2008 by year-end.

Further, the product allows administrators to test and validate disaster recovery scenarios and perform audits for compliance and regulator requirements.

Rapid Recovery 4.0 is available now.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.