Microsoft is entering the disk-based backup and recovery market. The software giant has revealed an open beta of Microsoft Data Protection Server (DPS), a continuous disk-based backup and recovery solution. The software promises rapid, reliable and efficient recovery in minutes -- not hours -- for the Windows 2003 Server System customers.

Redmond has stepped up to the plate with a cadre of no less than 20 industry storage partners which include backup and recovery independent software vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufactures (OEMs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) lined up in its bullpen.

Conceivably, some customers will require tape backup, so Microsoft has a backup interface under development to meet those requirements. With respect to tape backup, Redmond is basing the backup interface on the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) API that is found in Windows Server 2003.

"Data storage is a hot growth area right now, particularly as more content goes digital. Microsoft sees opportunity in providing its own data storage software solutions to protect increasingly digital assets. Much digital content is of Microsoft's making. Technologies like SharePoint Portal Server, Rights Management Services and Windows Digital Media can generate massive amounts of data that needs to be managed. Microsoft wants to ensure Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory anchor data management," Jupiter Analyst Joe Wilcox told BetaNews.

Jupiter's Wilcox continued by saying that Microsoft is "ramping up a barrage" of new enterprise products set for arrival during the 2005 calendar year. The bulk of these new and updated products are designed to "compliment and extend" Windows Server 2003 R2.

"Our research shows that 47 percent of large businesses are Windows end to end, meaning desktop and server. I see Microsoft's data storage products as focused on these customers. I wouldn't really call them sufficient to meet the storage management demands of companies running heterogenous infrastructures--at least based on the early feature set about a year from release," continued Wilcox.

Customers may register and download the beta at the Microsoft Data Protection Server Web site. The general product release is scheduled for the second half of 2005.