Do you need a commercial backup product? At the UUASC June meeting, Curtis Preston of Collective Technologies will talk about the tools that are available on UNIX (and select other) systems to safeguard your data against loss. The talk will examine the utilities provided with the operating system and freely-available software, what they will (and will not) do, and whether they are adequate for what you need to protect.

If you need commercial software, how do you choose? There are currently over 45 distinct backup products on the market, many claiming that they are the only true solution. Many administrators choose the wrong product the first or even second time out because they simply don't know which questions to ask, or how to evaluate the answers. The talk will end by sharing an RFI that was used to get detailed information from many vendors about backup software, and what to look for to make sure the package you buy does what you need.