EMC’s Retrospect backup software has long been a major player for all levels of users, from everyday folks just looking to safeguard their personal data to small businesses and enterprises looking to back up small (and large!) herds of machines. The application backs up intelligently—only one copy of a file gets stored, no matter how many copies of it might live on a network—, supports incremental backups (so you can restore systems to any given snapshot, or retrieve long-deleted documents), offers great reporting, supports a wide variety of media and data types, and features powerful, flexible scripting so users (or administrators) can make sure the data the want backed up is backed up at the right times. But while Retrospect 7 for Windows was at least a competent product, Mac OS X users were stuck with Retrospect 6—which lacked support for features Apple introduced into its operating system years ago—ironic, since years ago the Mac version of Retrospect used to be one of the most reliable ways to back up Windows machines. As a result, Mac users have abandoned the product in droves, and while there are workable backup solutions out there for individuals and businesses (including Apple’s own Time Machine backup in Mac OS X Leopard), none really rise to Retrospect’s level of sophistication.
