Backup and Archiving Community Changes

We ‘re happy to announce that, based on numerous requests, user feedback, and research, we are in the process of splitting the Backup and Archiving community into two communities to best support our users needs. The Backup Exec and NetBackup families will continue to share a common space in the “Backup and Recovery” community, while Enterprise Vault and Clearwell products will share a common space in the  “Archiving and eDiscovery” community.

Here are a few screenshots to visually represent the split.

We had many people involved in this research including community members represented by Trusted Advisors and internal Symantec teams. Some considerations to splitting the community are to logically include the Clearwell products on Connect, as well as to address requests to better align customer experiences. The split helps with organizing the product content, and also helps our users find/post information easily.

The  current planned go-live date for the split is  March 05, 2012.

Here is the list of frequently asked questions regarding the split...

Q. When will the migration take place? How long will it take?
A. Migration is currently in progress and the 2 new communities will go live on March 05, 2012.

Q. What content is moving? Where will I find the content I’m looking for?
A. The new Backup and Recovery community will include information, forums, etc. for the following Symantec products:

• Backup Exec
• NetBackup
• NetBackup Appliances
• NetBackup PureDisk
• NetBackup RealTime
• Online Backup
• Online Storage for Backup Exec
• OpsCenter
• Replication Exec
• Symantec System Recovery

The new EV Community will include information, forums, etc. for  the following Symantec products:

• Compliance Accelerator
• Discovery Accelerator
• Discovery Collector
• eDiscovery Platform
• Enterprise Vault

Q. I have bookmarks on several articles and/or other areas in Connect. Will those bookmarks still work?
A. The major landing pages on Connect will be automatically redirected to their new URLs. You may want to update your bookmarks when you are redirected so that you go to the new page directly. In addition, most content pages will also automatically redirect. However, some of the interstitial pages will not have automatic redirects. For those pages, you’ll need to manually update your bookmarks.

Q. What if an article, forum discussion, etc. contains a link to another Connect article or forum discussion in the body of the content? Will that link automatically update?
A. Links to other Connect content will not change so they should not be affected. However, links to general landing pages on Connect will not be updated. As the migration occurs, those URLs will point to a redirect page.

Q. I have an RSS feed set up to alert me of new additions to the community. Will that feed change?
A. Yes, you will need to update your RSS feed to make sure that you continue to receive the information relevant to you.

If you have content specific RSS feeds, you can update those by visiting the appropriate page on Connect and clicking the RSS icon to get the new feed.

Q. What about content I may have submitted? Will it still appear?
A. Yes, because content is tagged with a Symantec product, that content will automatically be migrated to the correct community. The links to the content should still be valid.

Q. Will there be any changes to the current Backup newsletter subscription?
A. No. The Backup and Archiving newsletter will continue to handle content for BE, NBU, EV and eDiscovery products. Current users can continue with their current subscriptions. New users can subscribe to the Backup Newsletter.

Q. What will happen to the current Backup and Archiving User Groups on Connect?
A. There will be no changes to the current User Groups at this time.

We’re working to ensure that this will be a smooth transition with little or no inconvenience for you. We hope that these changes will better your experience on the Symantec Connect site. Please watch this space for updates and the latest information about the move. Feel free to post any questions or comments here as well.

Thanks for your continued participation in the community.

Swathi Turlapaty
Backup and Archiving Community Manager