System Center Data Protection Manager

System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) is a software product from Microsoft, designed to help IT professionals manage the Windows environment. It is part of the Microsoft System Center family of products and integrates disk-to-disk and continuous data protection for reliable recovery of Windows server workloads. Previously known as Data Protection Server, DPM is Microsoft's first entry into the continuous backup/recovery industry. It also uses Microsoft's Shadow Copy technology for continuous backups.

Overview
Data Protection Manager delivers centralized backup of branch offices and within the data center, by continuously protecting changed files at the byte-level to a secondary disk, which can then be backed up to tape. This also enables rapid and reliable recovery from an easily accessible disk instead of waiting to locate and mount tapes.

Data Protection Manager 2006 was released on September 27, 2005. The current version, Data Protection Manager 2010, supports protection of Windows File Servers, Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint, Microsoft Virtual Server and Bare Metal Restore (BMR).

Supported systems
Following versions of the servers are supported:


 * Windows Server 2003
 * Windows Server 2008
 * Exchange Server 2003 with SP2
 * Exchange Server 2007
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with SP4
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with SP1 or SP2.
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2008
 * Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
 * Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
 * Windows XP SP2
 * Windows Vista (All editions except Home editions)