DPM 2006 was the first version of DPM. It focused specifically on the protection of file servers and servers running file-based applications and wasn’t intended to protect Exchange workloads. DPM 2007 was with a high degree of awareness for specific Microsoft applications, such as Exchange Server, SQL Server, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server read, write and store data on volumes. Hence, DPM 2007 provides tailored, protection and recovery for these key workloads. DPM 2010 provides even more and flexibility in Microsoft application protection and recovery, as well as new capabilities in protecting virtualization platforms and the ability to protect Windows client data.. These features allow systems administrators and IT generalists to develop their own recovery infrastructure, perform their own Exchange Server backups, and perform mailbox database and mailbox recovery operations without relying on backup or storage specialists. Microsoft and Windows-Specific Design As one of the largest IT companies in the world, Microsoft has significant internal data protection requirements. Given that the company uses its own products for its IT infrastructure, it also has one of the biggest deployments of Microsoft products in the world. Several years ago, Microsoft performed an internal investigation to analyze how the third-party data protection tools met the organization’s backup and recovery needs. The investigation found that there were gaps between the protection that Microsoft needed and the protection those products could provide. In parallel with that, Microsoft customers and partners provided feedback on what they needed in data protection and recovery, but weren’t getting in their legacy solutions. The needs across organizations were the same, showing not only the capabilities that were missing but also the requirement that the solution fit equally well for not only large enterprise but all midsized organziations. With this disparity in mind, Microsoft began development of System Center Data Protection Manager.
Less complicated point-in-time restoration – Point-in-time (PIT) restoration from a lagged database copy requires an administrator to perform a complex operation that involves locating and replaying specific log files as part of the recovery process. DPM allows administrators to perform PIT recovery with several quick selections from an intuitive GUI interface. The interface minimizes the complexity and time required for a PIT restoration, ensuring that the appropriate data is reliably restored. Fewer Exchange servers are needed - Leveraging DAGs to provide a comprehensive data protection solution requires that you deploy a large number of Exchange Servers. For example, to provide a mailbox database copy that allows for automatic failover and another that allows for a point-in-time (PIT) restore, you will need to deploy a minimum of three Exchange mailbox servers: One to host the active mailbox database, one to host the up-to-date copy, and one to host the lagged copy. If you are attempting to also provide offsite backup and recovery, even more Exchange mailbox servers are required. A robust data protection solution that relies solely on DAGs will require a significant investment in Exchange Server 2010 licenses. With a DPM solution in place, offsite backup and PIT restores can be handled through DPM with DAGs implemented primarily as a high availability solution. A DPM solution minimizes the complexity of the Exchange infrastructure, and licensing a DPM server is more cost- effective than licensing the necessary extra instances of Exchange. Longer retention range - DAG lagged copies offer administrators limited PIT recovery options. By design, PIT recovery from a lagged recovery is limited to a maximum of 14 days. PIT recovery of data protected by DPM 2010 enhances the data protection available to administrators by providing PIT restore from outside the DAG14-day limitation. More consistent backup and recovery process - DPM 2010 allows an organization to use a consistent backup and recovery process across multiple workloads such as File servers, SQL, Hyper-V, and SharePoint. DPM 2010 and other Exchange Roles When protecting Exchange Server 2010, administrators must consider how other Exchange Server roles such as the Hub Transport and Client Access Server should be